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Fig. 1 – A triangle. The angles α (or A), β (or B), and γ (or C) are respectively opposite the sides a, b, and c.. In trigonometry, the law of cosines (also known as the cosine formula or cosine rule) relates the lengths of the sides of a triangle to the cosine of one of its angles.
If the law of cosines is used to solve for c, the necessity of inverting the cosine magnifies rounding errors when c is small. In this case, the alternative formulation of the law of haversines is preferable. [3] A variation on the law of cosines, the second spherical law of cosines, [4] (also called the cosine rule for angles [1]) states:
The cosine rule may be used to give the angles A, B, and C but, to avoid ambiguities, the half angle formulae are preferred. Case 2: two sides and an included angle given (SAS). The cosine rule gives a and then we are back to Case 1. Case 3: two sides and an opposite angle given (SSA). The sine rule gives C and then we have Case 7. There are ...
For the angle α, the sine function gives the ratio of the length of the opposite side to the length of the hypotenuse.. To define the sine and cosine of an acute angle , start with a right triangle that contains an angle of measure ; in the accompanying figure, angle in a right triangle is the angle of interest.
The proofs given in this article use these definitions, and thus apply to non-negative angles not greater than a right angle. For greater and negative angles , see Trigonometric functions . Other definitions, and therefore other proofs are based on the Taylor series of sine and cosine , or on the differential equation f ″ + f = 0 ...
In astronomy, the angular size or angle subtended by the image of a distant object is often only a few arcseconds (denoted by the symbol ″), so it is well suited to the small angle approximation. [6] The linear size (D) is related to the angular size (X) and the distance from the observer (d) by the simple formula:
In hyperbolic geometry, the "law of cosines" is a pair of theorems relating the sides and angles of triangles on a hyperbolic plane, analogous to the planar law of cosines from plane trigonometry, or the spherical law of cosines in spherical trigonometry. [1] It can also be related to the relativistic velocity addition formula. [2] [3]
Ordinary trigonometry studies triangles in the Euclidean plane .There are a number of ways of defining the ordinary Euclidean geometric trigonometric functions on real numbers, for example right-angled triangle definitions, unit circle definitions, series definitions [broken anchor], definitions via differential equations [broken anchor], and definitions using functional equations.