Finding Sides and Angles of Non Right Angle Triangles Some technicalities : * Lower case letters = sides of triangles

* Upper case letters = angles of triangles

Lower case letters are always opposite capital letters

A X c b y B z Y x

The Sine Rule :

B To Find a Side :

C
sin A sin B sin C To Find an Angle : a b c

a b c sin A sin B sin C

e.g. Find k :

65019

Before you start any question think about your final answer before you start it. Smaller sides are opposite smaller angles (and vise versa) So k must be smaller than 12.7. Lets check: Always start by putting the missing letter on top first.

sin23048 x

23048

x sin23048 k 12.7 sin 230 48 sin 65 019

12.7

k = 5.64

e.g. 2 Find angle R

Q 3.8 4.7
430 28

What can you say about the size of angle R before you start. Angle R must be bigger than 43028 because 4.7 is bigger than 3.8 so angle R must be bigger than angle T Remember : start by placing the missing letter on top first.

R T

x 4.7

sin R sin 43 28 4.7 3.8

0

x 4.7

sin R = 0.8508638.... R = 58018

1 3 e.g. 3 In ABC , find ' a' given that sin A , sin B , b 15 3 4

15

C a B

a b sin A sin B

a 15 1 3 3 4
3a = 20

The strange thing about this question is that there are no angles

2 a 6 3