TriangleTrouble
New member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2015
- Messages
- 1
Hello, we have seem to run into some trouble when trying to see what angles would work with a certain triangle.
Information:
sides:
AB = 2
BC = 3
angle A (CAB)= 1/6 pi
So first we wanted to know the lenght of AC, with cosine rule this gives:
(BC)² = (AB)² + (AC)² - 2*AB*AC*cos (angle A)
This gives (AC)² - 2 * √3 * (AC) - 5 = 0
So with quadratic equation this gives AC = √3 + 2*√2 or AC = √3 - 2*√2. Because the last one is negative this is discarded, because lengths can't be negative.
So now, with the Sine rule we then get:
BC / sine(1/6 pi) = AC / sine (angle ABC).
This gives a angle of 49 degrees or 131 degrees (because of the unit circle with sinus and having a positive outcome).
HOWEVER when you try to draw the actual trying it seems the angle of 49 degrees is impossible.
So basically the question is:
How can we see that that angle is impossible without drawing it or did we do something wrong and should it actually be possible?
I hope this was clear, thanks in advance.
Information:
sides:
AB = 2
BC = 3
angle A (CAB)= 1/6 pi
So first we wanted to know the lenght of AC, with cosine rule this gives:
(BC)² = (AB)² + (AC)² - 2*AB*AC*cos (angle A)
This gives (AC)² - 2 * √3 * (AC) - 5 = 0
So with quadratic equation this gives AC = √3 + 2*√2 or AC = √3 - 2*√2. Because the last one is negative this is discarded, because lengths can't be negative.
So now, with the Sine rule we then get:
BC / sine(1/6 pi) = AC / sine (angle ABC).
This gives a angle of 49 degrees or 131 degrees (because of the unit circle with sinus and having a positive outcome).
HOWEVER when you try to draw the actual trying it seems the angle of 49 degrees is impossible.
So basically the question is:
How can we see that that angle is impossible without drawing it or did we do something wrong and should it actually be possible?
I hope this was clear, thanks in advance.