Geometry/Vertical Angles

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Vertical angles are a pair of angles with a common vertex whose sides form opposite rays. An extensively useful fact about vertical angles is that they are congruent. Aside from saying that any pair of vertical angles "obviously" have the same measure by inspection, we can prove this fact with some simple algebra and an observation about supplementary angles. Let two lines intersect at a point, and angles A1 and A2 be a pair of vertical angles thus formed. At the point of intersection, two other angles are also formed, and we'll call either one of them B1 without loss of generality. Since B1 and A1 are supplementary, we can say that the measure of B1 plus the measure of A1 is 180. Similarly, the measure of B1 plus the measure of A2 is 180. Thus the measure of A1 plus the measure of B1 equals the measure of A2 plus the measure of B1, by substitution. Then by subracting the measure of B1 from each side of this equality, we have that the measure of A1 equals the measure of A2.

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