Question 98932: Can somebody please help me solve this question: In a right triangle, the length of the hypotenuse is 5 and the length of one of the legs is 3, determine the tangents of all three angles. Could you also please show your work, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you very much
Answer by timmy1729(23)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! This is where learning Pythagorean Triples is helpful. The smallest one is the 3,4,5 right triangle. So, the measure of the other leg is 4. Fortunately, you are in luck. Since Tangent is sine/cosine(or opposite/adjacent), you only have to find two tangents. The tangent for the right angle is undefined. It would be 1/0 and we know that you can't do that. If you picture it on the unit circle, sine is the y axis and cosine is the x axis. As you move up the circle towards 90 degrees, your sine(y) approaches 1. However, your cosine(x) approaches zero. The other tangents however are easy. Just remember SOH CAH TOA. Sine is opposite/hypotenuse, cosine is adjacent/hypotenuse, and tangent is opposite/adjacent. So your other two tangents are 3/4 and 4/3.
|
|
|
