Exploring Properties of Rectangles

Manipulate the dynamic rectangle and parallelogram on the site below by dragging the corners (vertices) and sides (edges). You can rotate or stretch the shapes, but they will retain particular features.

http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/chap5/5.3/index.htm#applet

Questions to think about :

• What is alike about all the figures produced by the dynamic parallelogram?
• What common characteristics do parallelograms and rectangles share? H
• ow do rectangles differ from other parallelograms?

• Predict whether the dynamic rectangle can make each figure below, then check your prediction by trying to duplicate the shape using the dynamic rectangle.
• Predict whether the dynamic parallelogram can make each figure below, then check your prediction by trying to duplicate the shape using the dynamic parallelogram.