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The Law of Cosines

The Law of Cosines provides a formula for determining the length of the unknown side of a triangle given the lengths of two sides and the angle between them. The formula states that the square of the length of the unknown side (c2) equals the sum of the squares of the two known sides (a2 + b2) minus twice the product of the two known sides and their cosine of the included angle (2abcosC). The document provides an example of using the Law of Cosines to calculate the length of the unknown side c given values for sides a and b and the angle between them. It also provides a geometric proof of the Law of Cosines using trigonometry and the distance formula.

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The Law of Cosines

The Law of Cosines provides a formula for determining the length of the unknown side of a triangle given the lengths of two sides and the angle between them. The formula states that the square of the length of the unknown side (c2) equals the sum of the squares of the two known sides (a2 + b2) minus twice the product of the two known sides and their cosine of the included angle (2abcosC). The document provides an example of using the Law of Cosines to calculate the length of the unknown side c given values for sides a and b and the angle between them. It also provides a geometric proof of the Law of Cosines using trigonometry and the distance formula.

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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Law of Cosines

The Law of Cosines n mathematics, when we study about Triangles and the relationships between their sides and angles between these sides we use trigonometric Functions. Cosine function gives the Ratio of the length of side adjacent to an angle (also called as base) to the length of the hypotenuse. Mathematically, cos (theta) = adjacent / hypotenuse The Law of Cosines also called Cosine Law and it is very useful for determining the unknown parameters (sides and angles) of any triangle. According to law of cosine: a2 = b2 + c2 2bc cos A, b2 = a2 + c2 2ac cos B,

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c2 = a2 + b2 2ab cos A, Solving these above equations we get, Cos A = (-a2 + b2 + c2 )/ 2bc Cos B = (a2 - b2 + c2 )/ 2ac Cos C = (a2 + b2 - c2 )/ 2ab If in the above figure we have given the measure of a = 13 and b = 20 with angle A = 660 we can find the length of side c using law of cosine formula. For that we can use the above stated cosine rule. c2 = a2 + b2 2ab cos A (as the law of cosine formula) Now substitute the value of side a and side b we have c2 = 13 + 20 -2* 20 * 13 * cos (66) c2 = 358 c = 358 c = 18.9 Let us take prove of this law: Considering the above triangle with sides a, b, c, where C is the measurement of the angle opposite the side of length c.

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Suppose the triangle is placed in coordinate system: a = (b cos C, b sin C) b = (a, 0), c = (0, 0), By the distance formula, we have: C = [(a b cos C)2 + (0 b sin C)2], => c2 = (a b cos C)2 + (0 b sin C)2, => c2 = a2 2abcosC + b2cos2C + + b2sin2C, => c2 = a2 + b2 2ab cos C.

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