Why Bother Solving Triangles?

A number of High School students can absolutely relate to the title of this blog post. Many students do not really understand the significance of solving triangles in their lives. What most students are sure of is that they just need to know how to compute angles and missing sides of triangle for them to pass their Trigonometry subjects. Nobody can deny that this is the reality for most High School students. Why would they even bother knowing the importance of solving triangles?

Many people are really clueless of the importance of solving triangles in their lives. They think that Trigonometry is merely a subject in High School that one needs to pass in order to get an easy pass to a college education. We must realize that we are solving triangles on a daily basis. The mere fact that we bother looking at the perfect angle when we hang our flat screen television or when we are arranging our furniture already imply, in a subtle way, that we do value solving triangles.

One of the important factors in Trigonometry is Solving Triangles. A triangle has three sides. In addition to that, it has three angles. When one is solving a triangle, one is actually looking for the missing angle or side. Most of the time, only few parts of the six parts (three sides, three angles) are given.

One of the most used method or formula in solving triangles is the Pythagorean Theorem. It is useful in solving a right triangle whose two sides are given but its hypotenuse is unknown. It is also being used in finding the sides of a triangle.

When one is asked to for the missing angles in a triangle, one should be using the Sine, Cosine and Tangent functions. This can also be done using a calculator. The most likely formulas commonly used for the Sine function are the following:

sin A = a⁄(c ) As well as sin B =b⁄c

As for Cosine functions, they are:

cos A = b/c As well as cos B = a/c

And for the Tangent functions:

tan A = a/b As well as tan B = b/a

The above formulas are used in finding the missing angles of Right triangles.