How do you determine whether triangle ABC has no, one, or two solutions given A=30^circ, a=3, b=6?

1 Answer
Jan 19, 2018

One triangle.

Explanation:

In this particular case we're given A=30^circ and a=3, which is the side opposite A. Since b=6=2a we actually know that we're dealing with a 30^circ-60^circ-90^circ triangle because of the ratio of sides: x-xsqrt(3)-2x. In this case there is exactly one triangle and we don't really need to use the Law of Sines.

If you want to use the law of sines, though, calculate 6*sin(30^circ) = 6(1/2)=3 which is exactly the length of a, the side opposite the given angle, which means we have one right triangle solution.