Langley’s Adventitious Angles Langley’s Adventitious Angles Langley’s Adventitious Angles is a mathematical problem posed by Edward Mann Langley in "The Mathematical Gazette" in 1922. In its original form the problem was as follows: formula_1 is an isosceles triangle. A solution was developed by James Mercer in 1923. This solution involves drawing one additional line, and then making repeated use of the fact that the internal angles of a triangle add up to 180° to prove that several triangles drawn within the large triangle are all isosceles. Many other solutions are possible. Cut the Knot list twelve different solutions and several alternative problems with
Triangle inequality angles satisfy: Therefore, and so, in particular, That means side opposite angle is shorter than side opposite the larger angle . But . Hence: A similar construction shows , establishing the theorem. An alternative proof (also based upon the triangle postulate) proceeds by considering three positions for point : (i) as depicted (which is to be proven), or (ii) coincident with (which would mean the isosceles triangle had two right angles as base angles plus the vertex angle , which would violate the triangle postulate), or lastly, (iii) interior to the right triangle between points and (in which case angle