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Thread: Centimeters to Radians for a Given Triangle?

  1. March 20th 2009, 09:51 AM #1
    sstecken
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    Centimeters to Radians for a Given Triangle?

    Greetings.

    Given: I have a right triangle with sides of 5cm, 13cm, and sqrt(194)cm.

    What is the equation to calculate the side of 5cm in radians? I'm pretty sure it involves atan, but am unsure how to implement it.

    Thanks.
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  2. March 20th 2009, 11:57 AM #2
    Las
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    Quote Originally Posted by sstecken View Post
    Greetings.

    Given: I have a right triangle with sides of 5cm, 13cm, and sqrt(194)cm.

    What is the equation to calculate the side of 5cm in radians? I'm pretty sure it involves atan, but am unsure how to implement it.

    Thanks.

    Angles are measured in radians...maybe they're asking for the angle opposite the 5cm length..then it would be the tan inverse of opposite/adjascent
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  3. March 20th 2009, 12:26 PM #3
    HallsofIvy
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    Quote Originally Posted by sstecken View Post
    Greetings.

    Given: I have a right triangle with sides of 5cm, 13cm, and sqrt(194)cm.

    What is the equation to calculate the side of 5cm in radians? I'm pretty sure it involves atan, but am unsure how to implement it.

    Thanks.
    As Las said, angles are measured in radians, not the length of a side. It is true that 5^2+ 13^2= 194 so this is a right triangle. You can use any of the trig functions to answer this. Letting \theta be the angle opposite the leg of length 5, we have
    (1) tan(\theta)= \frac{5}{13}
    (2) cot(\theta)= \frac{13}{5}
    (3) sin(\theta)= \frac{5}{\sqrt{94}}
    (4) cos(\theta)= \frac{13}{\sqrt{94}}
    (5) sec(\theta)= \frac{\sqrt{94}}{13}
    (6) csc(\theta)= \frac{\sqrt{94}}{5}

    Use any one of those.
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  4. March 20th 2009, 09:26 PM #4
    Creebe
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    1. Draw the triangle
    2. It's a right triangle, so find the angle in degrees
    3. Then convert the degrees to radians. 1 deg = 180/\pi radians
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  5. March 22nd 2009, 11:04 AM #5
    HallsofIvy
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    Why find the angle in degrees? Why not go directly to radians?
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