OpenEuphoria

Re: trig question

• Posted by Jeff Zeitlin <jzeitlin at CYBURBAN.COM> Sep 01, 2000
• 782 views

On Fri, 1 Sep 2000 00:00:36 -0400, Lewis Townsend <keroltarr at HOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:

>Hello all,

>This is a trig question I think. How do I find an angle
>of a right triangle if all I know is the length of the
>sides?

>later,
>Lewis Townsend

>  ?=B0
>  |\
>  | \sqrt((5*5)+(3*3))
>5 |  \
>  |___\
>90=B0 3  ?=B0

Yes, it's trig.  The 'magic word' for this is SOHCAHTOA.  It refers to th=
e
method of calculating the three most common trigonometric functions.  The
three sides of the triangle are labelled 'O' for 'Opposite', 'A' for
'Adjacent' and 'H' for 'Hypotenuse'  The 'magic word' describes the
division that is used to compute the function, i.e., Sine is Opposite ove=
r
Hypotenuse' (for the top angle in your diagram, 3/sqrt(...)), Cosine is
Adjacent over Hypotenuse' (5/sqrt(...)), and Tangent is Opposite over
Adjacent (3/5).  Then, look up the angle in a table for the appropriate
function. (Or use the arcsin, arccos, arctan functions on your calculator=
.)
A little bit of work might allow you to derive the 'direct' calculations;
IIRC, there is some stuff in zeitlin.zip in the Euphoria archives that ha=
s
(most of) the appropriate functions in it.

--
Jeff Zeitlin
jzeitlin at cyburban.com