So far we've only been able to work with right-angle triangles when using trigonometric functions. Although these are really useful triagles, there are lots of other types of trinangles besides right angles. We need a way to deal with those.
If we're working with a non-right angle triangle, that means there's no hypotenuse, so we can't use Pythagorean theorem. Instead, we have 2 tools called the Sine Law and the Cosine Law. Let's take a look at the Sine Law first
If we have this triangle:
.
The Sine Law says that its sides and angles are related in this way:
a b c
------- = ------- = -------
sin A sin B sin C
Main points to notice:
-
the triangle needs to be labelled the way it is in the picture above: side a is opposite angle A, side b is opposite angle B, and side c is opposite angle C (note - c is NOT the hypotenuse)
Thank you!!!!
