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 #60#degrees.

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