<PRE><B>Question 433691</B>
The legs of a right triangle measure 54 and 33.
 Find to the nearest degree the measure of the smallest angle of the triangle.
:
Usually the &quot;legs&quot; refer to the sides that are not the hypotenuse
It will help to draw this out triangle ABC, where B is the right angle and b is the hypotenuse, then
a = 33
c = 54
:
find angle A, side opposite = 33, side adjacent = 54 (smallest angle has smallest side opposite (a)
:
tan(A) = {{{33/54}}}
Find the arctan (tan^-1) {{{33/54)}}}
A = 31.43 degrees
:
We can confirm this is the smallest angle by finding C
180 - 90 - 33.429 = 58.57
 :
Did this make sense to you now?</PRE>