Expert: Paul Klarreich - 3/10/2009

Question
how do i solve the triangle?? and law of cosine might be needed for this... as the question states.. and rounded 2 decimal places.

a= 49
c=85
C= 46.7

i tried using law of sines.. for this to find angle A.. but it doesn't seem to work.. what properties do i need to use.. can your run me step by step of how to do this..

Answer
Questioner:   ray
Category:  Calculus
Private:  No
 
Subject:  hi
Question:  how do i solve the triangle?? and law of cosine might be needed for this... as the question states.. and rounded 2 decimal places.

a= 49
c=85
C= 46.7

i tried using law of sines.. for this to find angle A.. but it doesn't seem to work.. what properties do i need to use.. can your run me step by step of how to do this..
.........................................

If you have a side and opposite angle given, you always use the law of sines.  So I assume you started with

sin A     sin C
------ = -------
 a         c

sin A     sin 46.7
------ = ---------
 49        85

       49 sin 46.7
sin A = ------------ = 0.41953958970827427580053422596533
           85

A = 24.805523279204383702882454525894 degrees, or so.

So what is the problem?
..........................
P.S. You seem a bit careless in the way you write things.  Not a good idea in math.