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D - Solving A Triangle With The Law of Cosines

Method for solving a triangle with the law of cosines

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2K views3 pages

D - Solving A Triangle With The Law of Cosines

Method for solving a triangle with the law of cosines

Uploaded by

citisolo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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23/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/23/2016 5:16:01 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/23/2016 5:16:01 AM PST


PreCalculus / Amankwa, Kwadwo (Amankwa)
1.

Solving a triangle with the law of cosines

Consider a triangle A B C like the one below. Suppose that C = 106 , a = 46 , and
b = 67 . (The figure is not drawn to scale.) Solve the triangle.
Carry your intermediate computations to at least four decimal places, and round
your answers to the nearest tenth.

If there is more than one solution, use the button labeled "or".

a
c
C

b
A

Two sides and the angle included between them are given.
This is the SAS case (Side-Angle-Side).

Note that we can't immediately use the law of sines to find the unknown side or angles.
However, we can use the law of cosines.

Law of Cosines:

Suppose a triangle has angles A , B , and C with opposite sides of a, b, and c,


respectively.
Then, the law of cosines says the following.

2 2 2
a = b + c 2b c cos A
2 2 2
b = a + c 2a c cos B
2 2 2
c = a + b 2a b cos C

We're given C = 106 , a = 46 , b = 67 .


and
Using the law of cosines, we can find c.
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23/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/23/2016 5:16:01 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

2 2 2
c = a + b 2a b cos C

c = a 2 + b 2 2a b cos C
2 2
= 46 + 67 2 46 67 cos 106
91.1264

Next, we need to find angle A or angle B .


We could use either the law of cosines or the law of sines.
We'll use the law of sines because the computations are usually easier.

Since C = 106 is an obtuse angle, both A and B must be acute. So, we can find either
using the law of sines.
We'll choose A . We start by using the law of sines to find sin A .

sin A sin C
=
a c
sin A sin 106
=
46 91.1264
46 sin 106
sin A =
91.1264

We can now find A.

1 46 sin 106
A = sin 29.0281
91.1264

To finish, we find angle B using the fact that the sum of the angle measures of a
triangle is180 .
Since A 29.0281 and C = 106 , we get the following.

29.0281 + B + 106 = 180


B = 44.9719

To get our final answer, we round the values to the nearest tenth.

Here is the answer.

A = 29.0 , B = 45.0 , c = 91.1

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23/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/23/2016 5:16:01 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

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