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Geeky stuff

Calling all maths geeks

7 replies

inapickle2300 · 05/11/2023 17:03

My DD is revising and this question came up, we’re looking for an explanation more than anything. She can ask in school of course but it’s really bugging her right now.

Calling all maths geeks
OP posts:
MapleSyrupWaffles · 05/11/2023 17:08

What level is she at?

If she is doing GCSE higher, then she should hopefully have learned sine rule and cosine rule already - possibly not, though, as those are some of the later topics to be covered, sometimes later in year 11.

The cosine rule is good for finding angles when you have three sides, so I'd use that to find the angle ECD. That is vertically opposite angle ACB, so will be the same. You can then use the sine rule to find the length of AC, as you'll have two sides and two angles in the smaller triangle.

Ponderingwindow · 05/11/2023 17:08

What is she doing right now? Can we use trig to solve this or do we need to limit ourselves to geometric triangle theorems?

inapickle2300 · 05/11/2023 17:14

She’s been doing sine and cosine, she assumed sine would be needed for this but I think her brain is fried as she’s been at it (revision) for hours.

OP posts:
inapickle2300 · 05/11/2023 17:17

Gcse higher yes.

OP posts:
inapickle2300 · 05/11/2023 17:24

She says diolch, she’d forgotten to do the cosine bit first so I’m not sure where she was getting the figure for the sine part. Case closed.

OP posts:
MapleSyrupWaffles · 05/11/2023 17:25

Yes, she needs sine rule and cosine rule - not just the basic sine and cosine that they learn first when they do it with right angled triangles, but the more complex rules that are only covered as part of higher tier. If she doesn't recognise those names, then it's possible she hasn't yet done this topic.

If she does recognise it, she will probably know the forumla for each (or they are on a formula she that she may have been given).

a2 = b2 + c^2 - 2bc(cosA). Where A is the angle that she wants to find out, a is the side opposite it, and b and c are the other two sides. She can then rearrange that forumla to make cosA the subject, and then use cos-1 to find A.

Once she has that, and thus the opposite angle, she can then use the sine rule in the smaller triange. This says that side a/sinA = side b/sinB, so she can say that 4/sin A = x/sin60. And then rearrange that equation to get x (the side she is trying to find, AC).

If that doesn't make any sense to her yet, then it's likely that she hasn't done this part of trig yet - if she is trying to do a past paper, then she should probably skip that question for now, until she covers it in class. Sometimes when students are preparing for mocks at this time of year, they haven't yet covered the entire syllabus ,so they need signposting to questions that they might not be able to do yet for valid reasons!

Of course, if it's homework on a topic that she is currently doing, then hopefully she will recognise the rules in that explanation and be able to do it. It is a multi-step question, which can be off-putting at first until students realise what they have to find first in order to use some of the rules.

MapleSyrupWaffles · 05/11/2023 17:26

ah ok, you posted while I was writing that, sounds like she's got the idea now.

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