I am autistic and have difficulty understanding certain things for (sometimes) no apparent reason. This is one of those times. I am in need of help, and would appreciate some explanation. Thankyou! Please simplify it as much as possible.
In: 7
Basically, every angle has a “sine” and a “cosine”, which are values unique to every angle between 0 degrees and 360 degrees.
Now assume you have a triangle. It has three sides and three angles. The side “opposite” an angle is the side not touching the angle, and vice versa.
The Law of Sines states that the ratio between the sine of an angle in a triangle and the side length of the opposite side is equal for all three angle/opposite-side pair, although this ratio changes between triangles.
The Law of Cosines states that the square of the length of a triangle’s side is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, minus twice the product of the other two sides’ lengths and the cosine of the opposite angle.
These Laws let us find all three angles and side lengths of a triangle given adequate information (two angles and a side, two sides and the angle between then, or three sides), which are why they are so useful.
If this isn’t clear, I’ll post a diagram when I get home.
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