Question

How do you know if to divide or multiply in soh cah toa problem for example Sin30=x/5?

Answer 1

`x = 5sin30`

Explanation:

Perhaps I don't understand your question, but I think there isn't any need for sohcahtoa in this equation.

If you need to solve for x, remember that `sin30` is simply a number. So solving this is like solving `9 = x/2`. Multiply both sides by the denominator (or cross multiply if you want to think of it that way).

`sin30 = x/5`

`x/5 = sin30`

`5(x/5) = 5sin30`

`x = 5sin30`

If this is supposed to be `sin 30^@`, thne use `sin30^@ = 1/2`, so we are solving:

`1/2 = x/5` so `x = 5/2`

(If it's really `sin30`, then we'll need some way to approximate `sin30`.