Law of Sines and Cosines

The goal of this section is to discuss formulas that relation the sides and angles of any triangle. These relations are known as the law of sines and the law of cosines. We can use these formulas to determine an unknown side or an unknown angle using information about the sides or angles. Which formula to use will depend on the available information. Before we begin, we shall make note of the following abbreviations from elementary geometry. Notation SAA SSA SAS SSS Explanation One side and two angles are given Two sides and an angle opposite one of those sides are given Two sides and the included angle are given Three sides of the triangle are given

We shall also label the angles of a triangle by A, B, and C, and the lengths of the corresponding opposite sides by a, b, and c. We begin by stating the law of sines.

Law of Sines In any triangle, the sines of the angles are proportional to the lengths of the opposite sides. That is,

C b a

sin A sin B sin C a b c

A c Figure 1

The proof is relatively straightforward. We begin by drawing a line from angle C down to the line segment AB. Notice that is one of the heights of the triangle. This creates a two right triangle. (It is labeled red in the next diagram.)

Figure 2

Recall that the area of a triangle is A to find h, the height. Notice that sin A
is c, so the area of the triangle will be

1 height base . In the above picture, we need 2

h . That is, h b sin A . The base of the triangle b

1 bc sin A . 2

h . That is, h a sin B . The a 1 base of the triangle is again c, so the area of the triangle this time will be ac sin B . 2 Looking at angle B instead of angle A, we see that sin B Let us draw another height in the triangle so that we can use angle C to find the area of the triangle. Again, we have created a right triangle.

Figure 3

h . That is, h b sin C . The base of this triangle is a, and so the b 1 area of the triangle is ab sin C . 2 Notice that sin C We know that the areas have to be equal, so setting the three equations equal we get the following:

1 1 1 bc sin A ac sin B ab sin C . 2 2 2 Rewriting, and multiplying by 2, we get:

bc sin A ac sin B ab sin C .

Finally, we divide by abc. We can do this since none of the sides equal to 0. (If any side was 0 then we would not have a triangle.) Doing this, we get: sin A sin B sin C , which is what we wanted to show, and so we are done. a b c

Example 1:

(SAA) If A = 60, B = 45, and a = 12, find b.

Solution:

sin 60 sin 45 12sin 45 Using the law of sines, b 12 sin 60 b

12

2 2 12 2 4 6 . 3 3 2

Example 2:

(SSA) Let a 2 , b 1 3 , and B = 105. Using the fact that sin(105) determine the remaining sides and angles of the triangle.
Solution:

1 3 , 2 2

2 1 3 sin105 sin A 2 sin105 1 2 2 sin A . But Using the law of sines, 2 1 3 2 1 3 1 3 since sin(30) = 1/2, we have that A = 30. Since there are 180 in a triangle, we have that C = 45. Using the law of sines again,

sin 45 sin 30 2 sin 45 we have c sin 30 c 2

1 2

2.
2 2

Problems can arise when trying to use the law of sines for SSA problems. Let us take another look at Example 2. Suppose, instead, we started with the following information: a 2 , c = 2, and A = 30. If we were to use the law of sines to compute C, we would have:
1 sin 30 sin C 2sin 30 2 2 1 2 . sin C 2 2 2 2 2 2

2 2 , but it is also true that sin(135) . Which 2 2 angle should we use? Both are valid, since 30 + 45 = 75 < 180 and 30 + 135 = 165 < 180. What happened?
Now, we know that sin(45)

Recall that sine is positive in both the first and second quadrant. It is for that reason that these ambiguous cases can appear. We shall limit our focus to problems where the given information leads to only possible triangle.

In order to use the law of sines, we need to know either two angles and a side, or two sides and an associated angle. But what if are given two sides and the included angle, or all three sides. For these types of problems, we need the law of cosines.

Law of Cosines

In any triangle, the square of the length of any side equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides minus twice the product of the lengths of those other two sides times the cosine of their included angle. That is,

C b a

A c

a 2 b 2 c 2 2bc cos A b 2 a 2 c 2 2ac cos B c 2 a 2 b 2 2ab cos C

The best way to approach this is to draw a picture. We shall draw two pictures, one for each possibility: (i) the angle (angle C) is acute or (ii) the angle is obtuse. Regardless, the calculations are the same.

(i)

(bcosA, bsinA)

(ii)

(c, 0)

In both pictures, one vertex (angle A) is at the origin, the vertex of angle B is at (c, 0), and the vertex of angle C is at (bcosA, bsinA). To justify this, think of point C lying on a circle with radius b. The x-coordinate is expressed as the radius times the cosine of the angle while the y-coordinate is expressed as the radius times the sine of the angle. Now, we shall use the distance formula to find the length of a2. Recall, the distance formula is given by D2 = (x2 x1)2 + (y2 y1)2. In this case, our two points are (c,0) and (bcosA, bsinA) and our distance is the length of the hypotenuse, a. So, using the above information, we get the following:
a 2 (b cos A c) 2 (b sin A 0) 2 b 2 cos 2 A 2bc cos A c 2 b 2 sin 2 A b 2 (cos 2 A sin 2 A) c 2 2bc cos A b 2 c 2 2bc cos A

And so, we have shown one case. We could repeat the above steps for b2 and c2, by just relabeling the figure. Thus, we are done.

Example 3:

(SAS) Determine the length of the hypotenuse of the following triangle.

Solution:

We have that h 2 142 162 2(14)(16) cos(120) 196 256 448

solving for h, we have that h = 26.

676 . Thus,
1 2

Notice that in the equations for the law of cosine, if we were to solve for the cosines, we would have the following equations: cos A b2 c2 a 2 2bc cos B a2 c2 b2 2ac cos C a 2 b2 c2 2ab

These formulas can be quite useful if we known all three sides on a triangle.
Example 4:

(SSS) In a triangle ABC, the sides are a 2 , b 3 , and c

Solution:

1 3 2

. Find the angles.

Using the formulas developed above, we have

( 3) 2

cos A

( 2( 3)
1 3 2
2

2) 2

1 3 2

2 3 2 3 2 2 3 3 2
1 2 3 3 2 3 3 2

3 3 2

3 3

1 . 2

But since cos(45)

1 2 , we have that A = 45. 2 2

2 2

cos B

( 2) 2

( 3) 2( 2)
1 3 2 1 3 2

1 2 3 3 2

2 1 3

3 2 2 3 3

2 1 3

1 3 2 1 3

1 . 2

But since cos(60)

1 , we have that B = 60. 2

At this point, we could use the law of cosines again to find cos C. Doing so, we would have cos C

23 2 3 3 3 . In that form, it is not 2( 2)( 3) 2( 2)( 3) 2 6 clear what the value of C would be. We would have to use a calculator to try to find the inverse of this quantity. But since C = 180 A B, we see immediately that C = 75.

( 2) ( 3)
2 2

1 3 2