1.1.1 Introduction. Geographers Often Use Calculations Involving Right-Angle
1.1.1 Introduction. Geographers Often Use Calculations Involving Right-Angle
1.1.1 Introduction. Geographers Often Use Calculations Involving Right-Angle
REFRESHER
BASIC NUMERACY: A
hypotenuse
right angle
Pythagoras states that the square of the hypotenuse (H 2) is equal to the sum of
the squares of the other two sides the opposite and adjacent (O 2 + A2), or in an
equation:
H2 = O2 +A2
If you know two of the sides, then you can substitute the known values into the
equation and solve to find the unknown.
In any trigonometric calculations, it is useful to study the problem and then draw
a quick sketch of the triangle, drawing angles that you know approximately
correctly and side lengths approximately to scale. Annotate all the information
that you know already onto your sketch, making sure to mark the right angle and
the hypotenuse.
For example:
52 = 2 2 + ? 2
hypotenuse
?m
5m
2m
Next, rearrange the equation to find the unknown. First get it by itself (unless you
are trying to find the hypotenuse, in which case you are already there).
Remembering the rules for rearranging equations (see Help Sheet 2 if you are
unfamiliar with these):
Subtract 22 from each side
+ ?2
52 2 2 = 2 2 2 2
Cancel 22 on RHS
52- 22 = ?2
25 4 = ?2
Evaluate subtraction
21 = ?2
Finally take the square root on both sides to find your unknown
The answer
21 = ?2
4.583 m
1.3 Calculating (i) the length of a sides knowing angles and (ii)
calculating angles knowing the length of sides. Commonly, we know just
the length of one side and one angle, and we want to find the length of one of
the other sides, or we have the length of two sides and want to find the angle.
For these problems, we use trigonometric ratios.
The trigonometric ratios are
sin (angle) = opposite/hypotenuse
cos (angle) = adjacent/hypotenuse
hypotenuse
hypotenuse
adjacent
opposite
opposite
adjacent
Decide which of the trigonometric ratios to use you need to use the one that
has two known values along with the unknown value that you are trying to find.
Consider:
45
hypotenuse
3m
? m
Here, the known length (3 m) is adjacent to the angle 45, and we want to find
the length of the hypotenuse, therefore we use cosine
Substitute your values into the cosine equation and rearrange to find the
unknown:
cos 45 = 3/H
Multiply both sides by H
Hcos45 =
3H
H
Hcos45 = 3
Hcos 45
3
=
cos 45
cos 45
H=
3
cos 45
Evaluate your equation. In our example that means using your calculator to find
the cosine of 45 and dividing 3 by that value = 4.243 m. IMPORTANT: Before
your start doing anything with sine, cosine or tangent check that your calculator
is using degrees to calculate angles - your calculator should show DEG
somewhere on the screen. The alternative is another measure of angle called
radians that will cause problems if your calculator thinks you are giving it angles
in radians rather than degrees.
Note that in the situation where you have two lengths and are trying to find the
angle you will not need to rearrange the equation, but you need to use the
inverse sin (=sin-1), cos (=cos-1) or tan (=tan-1) button on your calculator to find
the angle from the ratio of the two sides. For example:
cos = A/H
cos = 3/4.243 = 0.7071
= cos-1 0.7071 = 45
?
3m
hypotenuse
4.243 m
The inverse trigonometric functions (cos -1, sin-1 and tan-1) produce the angle
corresponding to a particular value for a cosine, sine or tangent. For example,
sin(37 ) = 0.602 and therefore sin-1(0.602) = 37 . Be careful: although
standard, this notation is poor since the square of a sin (or tan or cos) is written
sin2 (e.g. the square of sin(45) is sin2(45). Thus sin-1(45) might be thought
erroneously to be 1/sin(45). It is not.