Acute and obtuse triangles 5). The two oblique Heron triangles that share the smallest area are the acute one with sides (6, 5, 5) and the obtuse one with sides (8, 5, 5), the area of each being 12. Acute and obtuse triangles An acute triangle is a triangle with all three angles acute (less than 90°). An obtuse triangle is one with one obtuse angle (greater than 90°) and two acute angles. Since a triangle's angles must sum to 180°, no triangle can have more than one obtuse angle. Acute and obtuse triangles are the two different types of oblique triangles—triangles that are
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