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Solution of triangles (Latin: solutio triangulorum) is the main trigonometric problem of finding the characteristics of a triangle (angles and lengths of sides), when some of these are known. The triangle can be located on a plane or on a sphere. Applications requiring triangle solutions include geodesy, astronomy, construction, and navigation.
Fig. 1 – A triangle. The angles α (or A), β (or B), and γ (or C) are respectively opposite the sides a, b, and c.. In trigonometry, the law of cosines (also known as the cosine formula or cosine rule) relates the lengths of the sides of a triangle to the cosine of one of its angles.
The octant of a sphere is a spherical triangle with three right angles. Spherical trigonometry is the branch of spherical geometry that deals with the metrical relationships between the sides and angles of spherical triangles, traditionally expressed using trigonometric functions. On the sphere, geodesics are great circles.
The area of a triangle can be demonstrated, for example by means of the congruence of triangles, as half of the area of a parallelogram that has the same base length and height. A graphic derivation of the formula T = h 2 b {\displaystyle T={\frac {h}{2}}b} that avoids the usual procedure of doubling the area of the triangle and then halving it.
In trigonometry, the law of sines, sine law, sine formula, or sine rule is an equation relating the lengths of the sides of any triangle to the sines of its angles. According to the law, = = =, where a, b, and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle, and α, β, and γ are the opposite angles (see figure 2), while R is the radius of the triangle's circumcircle.
This is known as the SAS similarity criterion. [7] The "SAS" is a mnemonic: each one of the two S's refers to a "side"; the A refers to an "angle" between the two sides. Symbolically, we write the similarity and dissimilarity of two triangles ABC and A'B'C' as follows: [8]
Once we solve the two equations for the two unknowns φ, ψ, we can use either of the two expressions above for ¯ ¯ to find ¯ since AB is known. We can then find all the other segments using the law of sines.
The shape of a triangle is determined up to congruence by specifying two sides and the angle between them (SAS), two angles and the side between them (ASA) or two angles and a corresponding adjacent side (AAS). Specifying two sides and an adjacent angle (SSA), however, can yield two distinct possible triangles.