Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cosine Law

In any triangle the sim of two sides squared less twice those two side lengths multiplyed by the cosine of the included angle yields the included side squared.

a^2=b^2+c^2-2bc(cosA)
b^2=a^2+c^2-2ac(cosB)
c^2=a^2+b^2-2ab(cosC)
You would use these three to solve for a line segment and these other three would be used for finding an angle.
cosA=a^2-b^2-c^2/-2bc
cosB=a^2-b^2-c^2/-2ac
cosC=a^2-b^2-c^2/-2ab

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