Math  /  Geometry

QuestionA triangular field has sides of lengths 24, 47, 59 km . Enter your answer as a number; answer should be accurate to 2 decimal places.
Find the largest angle in degrees: \square

Studdy Solution

STEP 1

What is this asking? We've got a huge triangular field, and we need to find the biggest angle inside it, knowing the lengths of all three sides! Watch out! Remember, the largest angle is always opposite the longest side.
Don't mix them up!

STEP 2

1. Apply Law of Cosines
2. Calculate the angle

STEP 3

The longest side is 5959 km.
This is super important because the largest angle will be *opposite* to this side.
Let's call this side cc, so c=59c = 59.

STEP 4

Let's call the other two sides aa and bb.
So, a=24a = 24 and b=47b = 47.

STEP 5

The Law of Cosines states: c2=a2+b22abcos(C)c^2 = a^2 + b^2 - 2 \cdot a \cdot b \cdot \cos(C), where CC is the angle opposite side cc.
This is *exactly* what we need!

STEP 6

Let's plug in what we know: 592=242+47222447cos(C)59^2 = 24^2 + 47^2 - 2 \cdot 24 \cdot 47 \cdot \cos(C) 3481=576+22092256cos(C)3481 = 576 + 2209 - 2256 \cdot \cos(C)

STEP 7

Let's simplify and isolate the cosine term: 3481=27852256cos(C)3481 = 2785 - 2256 \cdot \cos(C) 34812785=2256cos(C)3481 - 2785 = -2256 \cdot \cos(C)696=2256cos(C)696 = -2256 \cdot \cos(C)

STEP 8

Divide both sides by 2256-2256 to get cos(C)\cos(C) by itself: 6962256=cos(C)\frac{696}{-2256} = \cos(C) cos(C)0.3085\cos(C) \approx -0.3085

STEP 9

Now, we'll use the inverse cosine (also called arccos) to find the angle CC: C=arccos(0.3085)C = \arccos(-0.3085) C107.94C \approx 107.94^\circ

STEP 10

The largest angle in the triangular field is approximately **107.94** degrees.

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