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In the following definitions, the hypotenuse is the side opposite to the 90-degree angle in a right triangle; it is the longest side of the triangle and one of the two sides adjacent to angle A. The adjacent leg is the other side that is adjacent to angle A. The opposite side is the side that is opposite to angle A.
To find an unknown angle, the law of cosines is safer than the law of sines. The reason is that the value of sine for the angle of the triangle does not uniquely determine this angle. For example, if sin β = 0.5, the angle β can equal either 30° or 150°. Using the law of cosines avoids this problem: within the interval from 0° to 180° the ...
If an altitude is drawn from the vertex, with the right angle to the hypotenuse, then the triangle is divided into two smaller triangles; these are both similar to the original, and therefore similar to each other. From this: The altitude to the hypotenuse is the geometric mean (mean proportional) of the two segments of the hypotenuse. [2]: 243
Mathematically, this can be written as + =, where a is the length of one leg, b is the length of another leg, and c is the length of the hypotenuse. [2] For example, if one of the legs of a right angle has a length of 3 and the other has a length of 4, then their squares add up to 25 = 9 + 16 = 3 × 3 + 4 × 4.
The opposite side is the side opposite to the angle of interest; in this case, it is . The hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle; in this case, it is . The hypotenuse is always the longest side of a right-angled triangle. The adjacent side is the remaining side; in this case, it is . It forms a side of (and is adjacent to) both the ...
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.
For example, the sine of angle θ is defined as being the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the hypotenuse. The six trigonometric functions are defined for every real number, except, for some of them, for angles that differ from 0 by a multiple of the right angle (90°). Referring to the diagram at the right, the six ...
Given two sides and their included angle in a scalene triangle, he proposed finding the third side by dropping a perpendicular from the vertex of one of the unknown angles to the opposite base, reducing the problem to finding the legs of one right triangle from a known angle and hypotenuse using the law of sines and then finding the hypotenuse ...