THE LAW OF SINES

The Law of Sines (or Sine Rule) is very useful for solving triangles:
𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
= =
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐶

It works for any triangle:

 a, b and c are sides.

 A, B and C are angles.
(Side a faces angle A, side b faces angle B and side c faces angle C).
And it says that:
When we divide side a by the sine of angle A
it is equal to side b divided by the sine of angle B,
and also equal to side c divided by the sine of angle C
Sure ... ?
Well, let's do the calculations for a triangle I prepared earlier:
𝑎 8
= = 80.885. . . = 9.04. . .
sin 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛(62.2°)
𝑏 5
= = 50.552. . . = 9.06. . .
sin 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛(33.5°)
𝑐 9
= = 90.995. . . = 9.04. ..
sin 𝐶 𝑠𝑖𝑛(84.3°)
The answers are almost the same!
(They would be exactly the same if we used perfect accuracy).
So now you can see that:
 𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
= =
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐶
Is This Magic?

Not really, look at this general triangle and imagine it is two right-angled triangles sharing the
side h:

The sine of an angle is the opposite divided by the hypotenuse, so:

ℎ
𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐴) = 𝑏 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐴) = ℎ
𝑏
ℎ
𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐵) = 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐵) = ℎ
𝑎
𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐵) and 𝑏 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐴) both equal h, so we get:
𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐵) = 𝑏 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝐴)
Which can be rearranged to:
𝑎 𝑏
=
sin 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵
𝑐
We can follow similar steps to include
sin 𝐶
How Do We Use It?
Let us see an example:
Example: Calculate side "c"

LAW OF SINES:
𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
= =
sin 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 sin 𝐶

Put in the values we know:

𝑎 7 𝑐
= =
sin 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 35° sin 105°

𝑎
Ignore (not useful to us):
sin 𝐴
7 𝑐
=
𝑠𝑖𝑛 35° sin 105°
Now we use our algebra skills to rearrange and solve:
𝑐 7
Swap sides : =
sin 105° 𝑠𝑖𝑛 35°

𝑐 7
Multiply both sides by 𝑠𝑖𝑛(105°): × sin 105° = × sin 105°
sin 105° 𝑠𝑖𝑛 35°

7 7
Calculate: 𝑐 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛 35° × sin 105° = 0.574 × 0.966 …

𝑐 = 11.8 (𝑡𝑜 1 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒)

FINDING AN UNKNOWN ANGLE
In the previous example we found an unknown side ...
... but we can also use the Law of Sines to find an unknown angle.
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐴 𝑞
In this case it is best to turn the fractions upside down ( instead of , etc):
𝑎 sin 𝐴
sin 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐶
= =
𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
Example: Calculate angle B

sin 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐶

Start with: = =
𝑎 𝑏 𝑐
sin 𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛 63°
Put in the values we know: = =
𝑎 4.7 5.5
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛 63°
Ignore "sin A / a": =
4.7 5.5
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛 63° 0.89100
Multiply both sides by 4.7: × 4.7 = 4.7 ∴ sin 𝐵 = × 4.7 =
4.7 5.5 5.5

0.7614 …
Calculate: 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝐵 = 0.7614. . .
Inverse Sine: 𝐵 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛−1 (0.7614. . . )
B = 49.6°
Sometimes There Are Two Answers !
There is one very tricky thing we have to look out for:
Two possible answers.

Imagine we know angle A, and sides a and b.

We can swing side a to left or right and come up with two
possible results (a small triangle and a much wider triangle)
Both answers are right!

This only happens in the "Two Sides and an Angle not between" case, and even then not
always, but we have to watch out for it.
Just think "could I swing that side the other way to also make a correct answer?"

EXAMPLE: CALCULATE ANGLE R

The first thing to notice is that this triangle has different labels: PQR instead of ABC.
But that's OK. We just use P,Q and R instead of A, B and C in The Law of Sines.
𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝑹 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝑸
Start with: =
𝒓 𝒒
𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝑹 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝟑𝟗°
Put in the values we know: =
𝟒𝟏 𝟐𝟖
𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝑹 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝟑𝟗°
Multiply both sides by 41: × 𝟒𝟏 =
𝟒𝟏 𝟐𝟖
Calculate: 𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝑹 = 𝟎. 𝟗𝟐𝟏𝟓. . .

Inverse Sine: 𝑅 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛 −1 (0.9215. . . )

 𝑹 = 𝟔𝟕. 𝟏°
But wait! There's another angle that also has a sine equal to 0.9215...
The calculator won't tell you this but 𝑠𝑖𝑛(112.9°) is also equal to 0.9215. ..
So, how do we discover the value 112.9°?
Easy ... take 𝟔𝟕. 𝟏° away from 𝟏𝟖𝟎°, like this:
180° − 67.1° = 112.9°
So there are two possible answers for R: 67.1° and 112.9°:

Both are possible! Each one has the 39° angle, and sides of 41 and 28.
So, always check to see whether the alternative answer makes sense.
... sometimes it will (like above) and there are two solutions
... sometimes it won't (see below) and there is one solution

We looked at this triangle before.

As you can see, you can try swinging the "5.5" line around, but
no other solution makes sense.
So this has only one solution.