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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. For a triangle with sides a , {\displaystyle a,} b , {\displaystyle b,} and c , {\displaystyle c,} opposite respective angles α , {\displaystyle \alpha ,} β , {\displaystyle ...
In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle.The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is opposite that angle to the length of the longest side of the triangle (the hypotenuse), and the cosine is the ratio of the length of the adjacent leg to that ...
The spherical cosine formulae were originally proved by elementary geometry and the planar cosine rule (Todhunter, [1] Art.37). He also gives a derivation using simple coordinate geometry and the planar cosine rule (Art.60). The approach outlined here uses simpler vector methods. (These methods are also discussed at Spherical law of cosines.)
The law of cosines (also known as the cosine formula or cosine rule) is an extension of the Pythagorean theorem: = + , or equivalently, = +. In this formula the angle at C is opposite to the side c .
The cosine, cotangent, and cosecant are so named because they are respectively the sine, tangent, and secant of the complementary angle abbreviated to "co-". [32] With these functions, one can answer virtually all questions about arbitrary triangles by using the law of sines and the law of cosines. [33]
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 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 ...
The law of cosines for the tetrahedron [4] relates the areas of each face of the tetrahedron and the dihedral angles about a point. It is given by the following identity: It is given by the following identity: