Angles

Maya rummaged around Liam’s drawer in search of a pencil. To her disappointment, the drawer was incredibly disorganized! Erasers, sheets of papers, calculators everywhere and… what is this? Maya had never seen this tool before. It was clear and in the shape of a semi-circle, and was marked with lines with numbers labeled.

“Liam, what is this?” Maya asked curiously, as Liam came over to see what she had found.

Liam took the tool in his hand, “Oh, this is a protractor. It helps us to measure angles.”

Maya frowned, “Angles?”

"Angles are kind of like the space between two intersecting lines, or lines that connect - we measure them in degrees. Imagine a point in the center of our circle, like the heart of our town. Now, extend lines outward from this point, like the rays of sunshine reaching out from the sun. These lines are called rays, and they create angles when they meet other lines or rays."

Maya, always hungry for knowledge, asked, "But what exactly are these angles, Liam?"

Liam used the protractor to reveal the magic of angles, displaying three distinct kinds of angles—acute, obtuse, and right angles.

"First, we gotta talk about right angles. A right angle is exactly 90 degrees, forming a perfect L-shape. Picture a square corner, like the corner of a book or the place where two streets connect.”

Maya nodded, “So if you're facing straight ahead, and then you turn a quarter of the way to your right, that would be a right angle—90 degrees?”

“Yes!” Liam said, he then gestured towards a straight path stretching out before them, "A straight angle measures 180 degrees. It's like turning halfway around in a complete circle. Picture facing forward, then turning all the way to face the opposite direction. A straight angle isn’t an L-shape like a right angle, it’s like a straight line."

Maya pointed to the protractor, “What about a small angle, that’s less than 90 degrees?”

“That is called an acute angle. It kind of looks like the angle that scissors make. And, it’s easy to remember! It’s ‘a cute’ angle, since it’s smaller than 90 degrees.”

Maya giggled, “And what about an angle that’s larger than 90 degrees?”

“An obtuse angle is larger than 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees. It kind of looks like a reclining chair!”

The protractor became a favorite tool of Liam and Maya, as they ventured around the house looking for angles to measure. These types of angles were all around them! The corner of Liam’s book was a right angle, and the floor was a straight angle. Liam’s laptop, which was half closed, formed an acute angle. The picture frame with a photo of Sparky, on the other hand, formed an obtuse angle with Liam’s desk. The protractor was their tool to unlocking a whole new world of angles!