How do you solve the triangle when α = 30.0°, a = 4.53, b = 9.06?

2 Answers
Jan 27, 2018

Please see below.

Explanation:

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The law of sines gives us:

a/sinalpha=b/sinbeta

asinbeta=bsinalpha

sinbeta=(bsinalpha)/a=((9.06)(sin30^@))/4.53=((9.06)(0.5))/4.53=4.53/4.53=1

beta=arcsin(1)=90^@

gamma=180^@-(30^@+90^@)=180^@-120^@=60^@

Jan 27, 2018

Read below.

Explanation:

I will try to solve all of the triangle's sides and angles using the Laws of Sines.

Laws of Sines states that Sin(alpha)/a=Sin(beta)/b=Sin(gamma)/c

We are assuming that the variables were labeled like the following:
enter image source here
Let's figure out beta using the Laws of Sines.
We have: sin30/4.53=sinbeta/9.06 We now solve for beta
=>9.06sin30=4.53sinbeta
=>9.06sin30=4.53sinbeta
=>2sin30=sinbeta
=>2(0.5)=sinbeta We use arccsin on both sides.
=>90°=beta

We could solve for gamma by using the fact that the angles of a triangle always add up to 180°.
Therefore, gamma=180-30-90

=>gamma=60°

We now see this is the 30-60-90 triangle!

Remember that there is a special relationship between the sides of this right triangle. Look below for more understanding:
enter image source here
Since we know the shortest and the longest side, we see that the missing side is the side opposite to 60degrees.

We now simply multiply our shortest side by sqrt3.
c=4.53sqrt3
c~~7.846
Our triangle now will look like this:
enter image source here