Solving Right Triangles

Key Questions

  • How do you find the missing angles when the sides of a right triangle are given?

    In Triangle #ABC# with the right angle at #C#, let #a#, #b#, and #c# be the opposite, the adjacent, and the hypotenuse of #angle A#. Then, we have

    #sin A=a/c Rightarrow "m"angle A=sin^{-1}(a/c)#

    #sin B=b/c Rightarrow "m"angle B=sin^{-1}(b/c)#

    I hope that this was helpful.

    Wataru · 1 · Oct 29 2014
  • How do you find all the missing angles, if you know one of the acute angles of a right triangle?

    The sum of the measures of all the angles in a triangle is always equal to #180^o#.

    In a right triangle, however, one of the angles is already known: the right angle, or the #90^o# angle.

    Let the other two angles be #x# and #y# (which will be acute).

    Applying these conditions, we can say that,

    #x+y+90^o=180^o#

    #x+y=180^o-90^o#

    #x+y=90^o#

    That is, the sum of the two acute angles in a right triangle is equal to #90^o#.

    If we know one of these angles, we can easily substitute that value and find the missing one.

    For example, if one of the angles in a right triangle is #25^o#, the other acute angle is given by:

    #25^o +y=90^o#
    #y=90^o-25^o#
    #y=65^o#

    Tanish J. · 1 · Nov 26 2014
  • How do you know what trigonometric function to use to solve right triangles?

    Right triangles are a special case of triangles. You always know at least one angle, the right angle, and depending on what else you know, you can solve the rest of the triangle with fairly simple formulas.
    http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/36500/36521/tri11_36521.htm

    If you know any one side and one angle, or any two sides, you can use the pneumonic soh-cah-toa to remember which trig function to use to solve for others.

    # ul s i n( theta) =# #ul o#pposite#/# #ul h#ypotenuse
    # ul c os(theta) = ul a#djacent#/ul h#ypotenuse
    #ul t an(theta) = ul o#pposite#/ul a#djacent

    Opposite refers to the side which is not part of the angle, adjacent refers to the side that is part of the angle, and the hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle, which is #C# in the image above.

    For example,lets say you know the length of #a# and the value of angle #A# in the above triangle. Using the cosine function you can solve for #c#, the hypotenuse.

    #cos(A) = a / c#

    Which rearranges to;

    #c = a/cos(A)#

    If you know the length of both sides #a# and #b#, you can solve for the tangent of either angle #A# or #B#.

    #tan(A) = a/b#

    Then you take the inverse tangent, #tan^-1# to find the value of #A#.

    Zack M. · 4 · Dec 7 2014
  • What are inverse trigonometric functions and when do you use it?

    Inverse trigonometric functions are useful in finding angles.

    Example

    If #cos theta=1/sqrt{2}#, then find the angle #theta#.

    By taking the inverse cosine of both sides of the equation,

    #=> cos^{-1}(cos theta)=cos^{-1}(1/sqrt{2})#

    since cosine and its inverse cancel out each other,

    #=> theta = cos^{-1}(1/sqrt{2})=pi/4#

    I hope that this was helpful.

    Wataru · 1 · Nov 2 2014
  • What is Solving Right Triangles?

    Solving a right triangle means finding missing measures of sides and angles from given measures of sides and angles.

    I hope that this was helpful.

    Wataru · 3 · Nov 6 2014

Questions

Right Triangles