3/13/2017 LawofCosines

LawofCosines
LESSON 1 2
STANDARDS: AUTHOR:

UNIT:LawofSinesandLawof HeatherLynnJohnson
Inthislesson,students
Denver,CO
Cosines userighttriangle
GRADE:912 trigonometryandthe
PERIODS:1 Pythagoreantheorem
todevelopthelawofcosines.

Instructional Objectives+ Materials Assessments+ Questions+ Related PrintAll

Plan Standards Extensions Reflection Resources

Priortothislesson,itislikelythatstudentshaveusedthelawofsinestosolveproblemsinvolvingcertainnonright
triangles.Duringthislesson,studentswilldiscoverhowthelawofcosinescanbeusedtosolveproblemsinvolving
nonrighttrianglesforwhichthelawofsinescannotbeused.

Introducethelessonwithdiagramssuchasthefollowing:

Posethesequestionstostudents:

Arethereuniquetriangleswiththesideandanglemeasuresgivenabove?Why?
[Yes.SSSandSASaretwomethodsthatprovetrianglescongruent.Therefore,ifthreesidesofatriangleare
known,oriftwosidesandanincludedangleareknown,thetriangleisunique.]
Whycan'tthelawofsinesbeusedtodeterminethemeasuresofthemissinganglesand/orsides?
[Tousethelawofsines,youneedtoknowthemeasureofatleastoneangleinthetriangle.Inaddition,you
needtoknowthemeasureofanangleandanoppositesidetousethelawofsines.Sincethatinformationisnot
given,thelawofsinescannotbeused.]

Instructstudentstothinkaboutthequestionsindividually.Then,allowthemtodiscusstheirideaswithapartner.
Thendiscussthequestionswiththewholegroup.

LawofCosinesActivitySheet

Afterdiscussingthequestions,distributeacopyoftheLawofCosinesActivitySheettoeachstudent,andhave
studentsreadtheintroduction.Afterstudentsreadtheintroduction,maketheconnectionbetweentheproblems
posedatthebeginningofclassandthepurposeoftheactivity.Explaintostudentsthatduringthisactivity,theywill
developthelawofcosines,whichaddressesthecasesoftrianglesforwhichthelawofsinescannotbeused.

TheLawofCosinesActivitySheetprovidesstudentswithspecificinstructionsthatguidethemthroughtheactivity.
Theteacherwilltakeondifferentrolesasstudentsengageintheactivity.Beforestudentsbeginthequestionson
theactivitysheet,theteacher'sroleisexplainer.Tobegin,drawtriangleABCwithaltitudekonthechalkboardor
overheadprojector,asshownbelow.Then,describethediagramtostudents.Pointouthowthealtitudekis
perpendiculartosidec.

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3/13/2017 LawofCosines
Askstudentswhythepartsofsideccanberepresentedasxandcx.

[Sincethetwopartsaddtoequalc,ifweuseavariabletorepresentoneoftheparts,weknowthat
theotherpartcanberepresentedascminusthefirstpart.]

ForQuestions18ontheactivitysheet,theteacher'srolechangestofacilitator.Studentsshouldworkwithapartner
astheycompletethesequestions.Theteachershouldcirculatearoundtheroomtofacilitatediscussionbetween
studentsandtoanswerquestions.

Tofacilitatepartnerdiscussion,theteachershouldaskthefollowingquestionswhilecirculatingaroundtheroom:

Ifk 2=b2(cx)2andk 2=a2x 2,whatconclusionscanbedrawnaboutb2(cx)2anda2x 2?[The

transitivepropertyallowsustoconcludethattheymustbeequal.]
WhyusecosBtoeliminatexfromtheequationb2=a2+c 22cx?[Studentsmaybetemptedtosaythatthey
usedcosBbecausetheyaredevelopingthelawofcosines.However,pushstudentstothinkmoredeeply.
CosBisthelogicalchoicebecauseitinvolvesx,whichwewanttoeliminate,anda,whichisasideof
triangleABC.]

AfterstudentshavecompletedQuestions18,instructthemtoposttheequationstheywrote.Inthisway,the
teachercanchecktheworkandmakecertainthatallstudentshavethecorrectequations.

AfterreviewingQuestions18,theteacher'srolereturnstoexplainer.Pointouttostudentsthedifferentpartsofthe
lawofcosines.ExplainhowthelawofcosineswritteninQuestion8isonlyoneformofthelawofcosines,as
differentanglesandsidescanbefoundbysubstitutingdifferentvariablesintotheequation.Afterexplaining,instruct
studentstoworkonQuestion9andtochecktheiranswerswithapartner.Oncestudentshavefinished,askthemto
statetheequationstheywrote.

AfterstudentscompletetheLawofCosinesActivitySheet,havethemusethelawofcosinestodeterminethe
measuresofthemissingsidesandanglesinthetrianglesdiscussedatthebeginningofthelesson.Whilestudents
areusingthelawofcosines,theteacher'sroleagainbecomesfacilitator.Theteachershouldcirculatearoundthe
roomwhilestudentsdeterminethemissingmeasures.(Studentsmayhavedifficultysolvingfortheanglesatfirst.
Theteachermaywishtodiscussthealgebraictechniquesinvolvedbeforestudentsbeginworking.)Afterstudents
havehadtimetodeterminethemeasuresandcheckanswerswiththeirpartner,theteachercanchoosestudentsto
postsolutionsontheboard.

Thesolutionsforthetrianglesareshownabove,withthemeasuresoftheunknownsidesandanglesingreen.

Toconcludethelesson,askstudentstodescribetherelationshipbetweenthegivensidesand/oranglesofatriangle
thatwouldrequiretheuseofthelaworsinesorthelawofcosinestodeterminethemeasuresofthemissingsides
and/oranglesinthetriangle.

[LawofSines:Twoanglesandaside(AASorASA)twosidesandanonincludedangle(SSA).Law
ofCosines:Threesides(SSS)twosidesandanincludedangle(SAS).]

LawofCosinesActivitySheet

AssessmentOptions

1.Providestudentswithasetoftriangleswithgivenanglesandsides.Askstudentstodetermineforwhich
trianglesthelawofsinescanbeusedandforwhichtrianglesthelawofcosinescanbeusedtodetermine
themissingangles/sides.Havestudentsjustifytheiranswers.
2.Usingthesetoftrianglesinoption1,havethestudentsdeterminethemissinganglesandsidesofthe
triangles.

Extensions

https://illuminations.nctm.org/lesson.aspx?id=2441 2/4
3/13/2017 LawofCosines
1.Posethefollowingquestion:Whycan'tthelawofsinesorthelawofcosinesbeusedtodeterminethe
missingsidesofatrianglewhenthemeasuresofallthreeangles(AAA)areknown?

[Thereareinfinitelymanytrianglesthathavecongruentanglesthesearecalledsimilar
triangles.]

2.Providestudentswithadiagramofarighttrianglewiththelengthsofbothlegsgiven.Askstudentstofind
thelengthofthehypotenuseusingthePythagoreantheorem.Then,havethemfindthelengthofthe
hypotenuseusingtheLawofCosines.CompareandcontrastthelawofcosineswiththePythagorean
theorem.

[ThePythagoreantheoremcouldbeconsideredaspecialcaseofthelawofcosines.Since
cos90=0,thelawofcosinesreducestoc 2=a2+b2forarightangle.]

QuestionsforStudents

1.GivenABCwitha=4.15cm,b=7.65cm,c=6.85cmandABCwitha=7.27cm,mC=41.62,b=5.11
cm,arethereuniquetriangleswiththegivensideandanglemeasures?Why?

[Yes.SSSandSASaretwomethodsforwhichwecanprovetrianglecongruent.Therefore,ifthree
sidesofatriangleareknown,oriftwosidesandanincludedangleofatriangleareknown,thetriangle
isunique.]

2.Whycan'tthelawofsinesbeusedtodeterminethemeasuresofthemissinganglesorsidesintriangleswhere
threesidesortwosidesandanincludedangleareknown?

[Tousethelawofsines,youneedtoknowthemeasureofatleastoneangleinthetriangle.Therefore,
thelawofsinescannotbeusedtodeterminethemeasuresofthemissinganglesinthetrianglewith
onlythreesidesgiven.Inaddition,tousethelawofsines,youneedtoknowthemeasureofanangle
andanoppositeside.Therefore,thelawofsinescannotbeusedtodeterminethemeasuresofthe
missinganglesandsideinthetrianglewiththegivensidesandincludedangle,becausetheside
oppositethegivenangleisunknown.]

3.Whatrelationshipbetweenthegivensidesoranglesofatrianglewouldrequiretheuseofthelaworsines?Which
wouldrequiretheuseofthelawofcosinestodeterminethemeasuresofthemissingsidesorangles?

[LawofSines:Twoanglesandaside(AASorASA),twosidesandanonincludedangle(SSA).
LawofCosines:Threesides(SSS),twosidesandanincludedangle(SAS).]

TeacherReflection

Howdidthestudentsrespondasyouengagedindifferentrolesthroughoutthelesson?
Whatweresomeofthewaysthatthestudentsillustratedthattheywereactivelyengagedinthelearning
process?
Didyoufinditnecessarytomakeadjustmentswhileteachingthelesson?Ifso,whatadjustments,andwere
theseadjustmentseffective?
Whatworkedwithclassroombehaviormanagement?Whatdidn'twork?Howwouldyouchangewhatdidn'twork?

LawofSinesandLawofCosines
912
LearntheLawofSinesandtheLawofCosinesanddeterminewheneachcanbe
usedtofindasidelengthorangleofatriangle.

LearningObjectives
Studentswill:
Userighttriangletrigonometrytodevelopthelawofcosines.
Usethelawofcosinestosolveproblems.

LawofSines
912

https://illuminations.nctm.org/lesson.aspx?id=2441 3/4
3/13/2017 LawofCosines
Inthislesson,studentswilluserighttriangletrigonometrytodevelopthelawof NCTMStandardsand
sines. Expectations
Analyzepropertiesanddetermineattributesoftwoandthreedimensionalobjects.
Explorerelationships(includingcongruenceandsimilarity)amongclassesoftwoandthreedimensional
geometricobjects,makeandtestconjecturesaboutthem,andsolveproblemsinvolvingthem.
Usetrigonometricrelationshipstodeterminelengthsandanglemeasures.

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