Thomas sent us a very clear explanation
of his solution.
Construct a perpendicular from
to a point
on
.
Triangles
and
are congruent by the Side-Angle-Side Congruence
Theorem since
(right angles),
and
.
Now for trisection, we must show that triangles
and
are
congruent.
(right angles again),
(since
it's the width of the horizontal leg of the carpenter's square), and
, so these two triangles are congruent, and so all three triangles
are congruent. So the three angles
,
and
are equal, and we have trisected the angle
.