SOLUTION: A parallelogram has sides of length 8cm and 12cm. Given the one of its angles is 65 degrees, find the lengths of its diagonals.

Algebra.Com
Question 414551: A parallelogram has sides of length 8cm and 12cm. Given the one of its angles is 65 degrees, find the lengths of its diagonals.
Answer by Edwin McCravy(20056)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Let the length of the shorter diagonal be x:



This is a case of side-angle-side given:
Use the law of cosines on the triangle with sides 8,12, and x

x² = 8² + 12² - 2*8*12*cos(65°)
x² = 64 + 144 - 192*cos(65°)
x² = 208 - 192(.4226182617)
x² = 126.8572937
x = 11.26309432

Next we use the fact that two adjacent angles of a parallelogram
are supplementary to find that the angle on the lower right is
180° - 65° or 115°. We draw the longer diagonal, and label its
length y:



This is also a case of side-angle-side given:
Use the law of cosines on the triangle with sides 8,12, and y

y² = 8² + 12² - 2*8*12*cos(115°)
y² = 64 + 144 - 192*cos(115°)
y² = 208 - 192(-.4226182617)
y² = 208 + 192(.4226182617)

y² = 289.1427063
y = 17.000419672

Edwin

RELATED QUESTIONS

A parallelogram has sides 22cm and 10 cm, and one of its angles is 130 degrees. Find the... (answered by josgarithmetic)
1. Adjacent sides of parallelogram are 7cm and 9cm. Its 1 diagonal is 8cm. Find its other (answered by KMST)
A diagonal of a parallelogram is 44.32 cm long and forms angles of 30 degrees and 33... (answered by Fombitz)
a parallelogram with sides 12cm,8cm with one of the diagonal 10cm,find the length of... (answered by drk)
Two sides of parallelogram are 38 cm and 22 cm, and one of its angles is 35 degrees... (answered by Alan3354)
One side of a parallelogram is 12cm and the corresponding altitude is 5.5m find its... (answered by josgarithmetic)
The sides of a parallelogram have lengths 8 inches and 16 inches and one of the angles of (answered by checkley75)
1. Two sides of a parallelogram measure 60 centimeters and 40 centimeters . If one angle... (answered by venugopalramana)
A rhombus has an area of 200 cm^2 and one of its interior angles is 110 degrees a. Find... (answered by ikleyn)