Week 9 – Intro to Special Right Triangles & Trig Unit 3 - 2
Special Right Triangles
While the Pythagorean Theorem works for all right triangles – there are some scenarios where it can be
helpful to have a few special relationships committed to memory.
45o 45o 90o
In a 45o 45o 90o triangle, the length of the hypotenuse is ______ times the length of the legs.
We can go the other way by dividing!
30o 60o 90o
In 30o 60o 90o triangles, everything is related to the length of the shortest leg. The hypotenuse is ______
times the shortest leg, and the longer leg is _______ times as long as the shorter leg.
Example:
Find the values of x and y – write your answer in simplest radical form.
A ramp is used to launch a kayak. What is the height of an 11 foot ramp when its angles is 30 o?
Practice & Break
Intro to Trig
So far, we have been investigating relationships between the sides of triangles – ways to find missing side
lengths when we have two others.
There are special relationships involving the sides and ANGLES as well. These are in a special area of
mathematics known as Trigonometry.
Let’s discuss how to “talk” about angles and sides of a right triangle.
A ____________________________ is a ratio of the lengths of two sides in a right triangle. These can be
extremely helpful when finding one of the _____________________________ in a right triangle.
The ratio of the lengths of the legs in a right triangle is called the _____________________ of the angle.
Tangent Ratio
The tangent (tan) of an angle is equal to the ratio of the ________________ leg over the _______________ leg.
tan S = ________ tan R = ________
Sine Ratio
The sine (sin) of an angle is equal to the ratio of the _________________ leg over the __________________ leg.
sin S = ________ sin R = ________
Cosine Ratio
The cosine (cos) of an angle is equal to the ratio of the ______________ leg over the __________________ leg.
cos S = ________ cos R = ________
Solving Trig Equations
If we know the value of the angle we can use it to find one of the missing sides. First
we must decide which trig function to use. Then we set up the function and use
algebra to solve for this missing value.
Example:
You want to hang a banner that is 29 feet tall from the third floor of your school. You throw a
38 foot rope out of the window to your friend. She extends it to the end and measures the
angle from her to the window to be 70o. How high is the window? *this is called an
_______________________________________*
You are skiing on a mountain with an altitude of
1200 meters. The angle of depression 21 o. How far
do you ski down the mountain? *this is called an
____________________________________________*
In this one we are missing the value on the bottom of the fraction – but we can still use Algebra to solve it.
Trig Inverses:
What about when we are missing an angle?
Examples:
Find the value of angle A to the nearest hundredth:
Find the measure of C to the nearest hundredth:
Solving a Triangle
“Solving a triangle” means to find any and all missing values, sides and angle measures!