Sunday, October 9, 2011

Solving Right Triangles.

This week we learned all about SOHCAHTOA.. yayyy..

If your wondering what SOHCAHTOA means, here it is:
sin(theta)=opp/hyp cos(theta)=adj/hyp tan(theta)=opp/adj

But here's the catch:
You can only use SOHCAHTOA on right triangles!

Example 1:
In triangle ABC, angleA=90degrees, angleB=25degrees, and leg a=18. Find b and c.
sin25=b/18
b=18sin25
b=7.607
cos25=c/18
c=18cos25
c=16.314

Example 2:
In triangle ABC, angleD= 90degrees, angleE=12degrees, and leg e=9. Find d and f.
tan12=9/f
f=9/tan12
f=42.342
sin12=9/d
d=9/sin12
d=43.288

Example 3:
Find the measures of the acute angles of a 3-4-5 right triangle.
tanB=4/3
B=tan^(-1)(4/3)
B=53.130
180-90-53.130
C=36.87

Example 4:
In triangle PQR, angleP=90degrees, angleQ=64degrees, and leg p=27. Find q and r.
sin64=q/27
q=27sin64
q=24.267
cos64=r/27
r=27cos64
r=11.836

Example 5:
In triangle XYZ, angleX=90degrees, angleY=37degrees, and leg z=25. Find x and y.
cos37=25/x
x=25/cos37
x=31.303
tan37=y/25
y=25tan37
y=18.839

P.S. I would have drawn triangle for you, but I haven't quite got that far on learning how to.. sorry. haha (:

1 comment:

  1. You can always copy and paste one in from another website!

    ReplyDelete