6.

1TheLawofSines
Everythingwehavedonesofarhasreliedonrighttriangletrigonometry,in
whichwehaveonerightangle,ahypotenuseandtwolegs.However,notall
trianglesarerighttriangles,sotohandleobliquetriangles(triangleswhich
donotcontainrightangles),wehavetwonewtools:
theLawofSinesandtheLawofCosines.
InthissectionwewilllookattheLawofSines.
GivenatrianglewithanglesA,B,andC,andsidesoppositethem
a,b,andc,respectively,asshownbelow,thefollowingrelationshipshold:

Notethatsincewearenolongerdealingwitharighttriangle,thereisno
hypotenuse,andthusallthetrigratiosarenullandvoid!

TheLawofSines:
Thelawofsinesrequiresthatyouhaveatleastonecorrespondingpair
(angleandsideoppositeit)andoneadditionalsideorangle.
Examples:Giventhetrianglesbelow,usetheLawofSinestofindthe
missingsidesandangles.Roundsidelengthstothenearesttenthand
anglestothenearestdegree.
C

1)2)
C
8
b

32o
c

62o

70o
c

3)

C
100o

28o
c

4)

10

85o

Constructanobliquetrianglewiththegiveninformationandthenusethe
LawofSinestofindthemissingvalues.Roundsidelengthstothenearest
tenthandanglestothenearestdegree.
1)a=20,b=14,A=40o

2)B=5o,C=125o,b=20

3)a=10,B=50o,C=70o

4)a=5,c=7,A=42o

Theareaofanobliquetrianglecanbefoundbyusingthefollowingformula:
Area=bcsinA=absinC=acsinB

Findtheareaofeachtriangledescribedbelow.
1)A=36o,b=3feet,c=5feet

2)C=100o,a=12inches,b=10inches

Applications:
1)Twofirelookoutstationsare12milesapart,withstationBdirectly
eastofstationA.Bothstationsspotafire.Thebearingofthefire
fromstationAisN32oE(32oeastofnorth),andthebearingofthefire
fromstationBisN49oW(49owestofnorth).Howfar,tothenearest
tenthofamile,isthefirefromeachlookoutstation?

2)Asurveyorneedstodeterminethedistancebetweentwopoints
thatlieonoppositebanksofariver.Thefigurebelowshowsthat
300yardsaremeasuredalongonebank.Theanglesfromeach
endofthislinesegmenttoapointontheoppositebankare62o
and53o.FindthedistancebetweenAandB,tothenearesttenth
ofayard.