SOLUTION: If you are trying to find the tangent of thirty using special right triangles and you have a square root on top what do you do to get the square root off the top

Algebra ->  Trigonometry-basics -> SOLUTION: If you are trying to find the tangent of thirty using special right triangles and you have a square root on top what do you do to get the square root off the top      Log On


   



Question 870539: If you are trying to find the tangent of thirty using special right triangles and you have a square root on top what do you do to get the square root off the top
Answer by KMST(5328) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You can find the tangent of 30%5Eo using the special 30-60-90 right triangle, which is half of an equilateral triangle.
Consider this triangle
x=sqrt%282%5E2-1%5E2%29=sqrt%284-1%29=sqrt%283%29 and tan%2830%5Eo%29=1%2Fsqrt%283%29
There will always be a square root in tan%2830%5Eo%29 , but math teachers do not like square roots in denominators.
To make it a more elegant expression we do this

One way to get rid of a square root in a denominator
is to multiply times that square root
both of the expressions above and below the fraction line
(numerator and denominator).