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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from mary, a teacher: I have an angle of 72 degrees and each of the sides are 5' long. What is the distance from each of the ends of the 5 feet to form a triangle. |
Hi Mary. You can use the Law of Cosines to solve this problem.
This states that in any triangle
c2 = a2 + b2 - 2ab Cos(C)
where a and b are the two sides connecting at angle C and c is the third side (opposite angle C). Put in the values you are given and you can find the length of the side you need.
Cheers,
Stephen La Rocque
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