High School Math : High School Math

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for High School Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Applying The Law Of Cosines

A triangle has sides of length 12, 17, and 22. Of the measures of the three interior angles, which is the greatest of the three?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We can apply the Law of Cosines to find the measure of this angle, which we will call :

 

The widest angle will be opposite the side of length 22, so we will set:

 

 

Example Question #1821 : High School Math

In  , , and . To the nearest tenth, what is ?

Possible Answers:

A triangle with these characteristics cannot exist.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

By the Law of Cosines:

or, equivalently,

Substitute:

Example Question #1822 : High School Math

 

 

Rt_triangle_letters
In this figure, angle  and side . If angle , what is the length of side ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

For this problem, use the law of sines:

.

In this case, we have values that we can plug in:

Cross multiply:

Multiply both sides by :

Example Question #1823 : High School Math

Rt_triangle_letters

In this figure  and . If , what is ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

For this problem, use the law of sines:

.

In this case, we have values that we can plug in:

Example Question #95 : Trigonometry

In  , , and . To the nearest tenth, what is ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Since we are given  and want to find , we apply the Law of Sines, which states, in part,

 and

Substitute in the above equation:

Cross-multiply and solve for :

Example Question #96 : Trigonometry

In  , , and . To the nearest tenth, what is ?

Possible Answers:

No triangle can exist with these characteristics.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Since we are given  , , and , and want to find , we apply the Law of Sines, which states, in part,

.

Substitute and solve for :

Take the inverse sine of 0.6355:

There are two angles between  and  that have any given positive sine other than 1 - we get the other by subtracting the previous result from :

This, however, is impossible, since this would result in the sum of the triangle measures being greater than . This leaves  as the only possible answer.

Example Question #3 : Graphs And Inverses Of Trigonometric Functions

Rt_triangle_letters

In this figure, angle . If side  and , what is the value of angle ?

Possible Answers:

Undefined

Correct answer:

Explanation:

For this problem, use the law of sines:

.

In this case, we have values that we can plug in:

Example Question #1822 : High School Math

Rt_triangle_lettersIn this figure, if angle , side , and side , what is the value of angle ?

(NOTE: Figure not necessarily drawn to scale.)

Possible Answers:

Undefined

Correct answer:

Explanation:

First, observe that this figure is clearly not drawn to scale. Now, we can solve using the law of sines:

.

In this case, we have values that we can plug in:

Example Question #1 : Finding Sides

Solve for .

Question_7

(Figure not drawn to scale).

Possible Answers:

There is not enough information

Correct answer:

Explanation:

The side-angle-side (SAS) postulate can be used to determine that the triangles are similar. Both triangles share the angle farthest to the right. In the smaller triangle, the upper edge has a length of , and in the larger triangle is has a length of . In the smaller triangle, the bottom edge has a length of , and in the larger triangle is has a length of . We can test for comparison.

The statement is true, so the triangles must be similar.

We can use this ratio to solve for the missing side length.

To simplify, we will only use the lower edge and left edge comparison.

Cross multiply.

Example Question #1825 : High School Math

Solve for .

Question_12

(Figure not drawn to scale).

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

We can solve using the trigonometric definition of tangent.

We are given the angle and the adjacent side.

We can find  with a calculator.

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