7 Hard Trig Problems _ Can You Solve These Challenging Geometry

8/16/2019 7 Hard Trig Problems _ Can You Solve These Challenging Geometry

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7 Hard Trig Problems | Can You Solve TheseChallenging Geometry Problems?Updated on October 26, 2014

Trigonometry is an area of geometry that deals with lengths and angles of triangles. And since many two-dimensional figures and three-

dimensional sold shapes can be broken down into triangles, trigonometry is also used to solve many advanced problems involving more

complicated shapes.

Trigonometric relations and functions are based on the relations between the sides of right triangles. The sine of a non-right angle is the ratio of

the opposite side to the hypotenuse. The cosine is the ratio of the adjacent side to the hypotenuse. And finally, the tangent is the ratio of the

opposite side to the adjacent side. Many people use the mnemonic "SohCahToa" to remember these ratios. Try these seven hard geometry

problems to test your skills at using trig to find angles and lengths in triangles.

(1) Right Triangles of Equal Perimeter

Problem: The two right triangles shown above have equal perimeters. The hypotenuse of the orange triangle is one leg of the green triangle

stacked on top of it. If the smallest angle of the orange triangles is 20 degrees, what are the angles of the green right triangle?

Solution: We don't need to know the side lengths of the triangles to solve for the unknown angles, only their relative lengths are necessary.

For the sake of simplicity, let the two legs of the orange triangle be cos(20) and sin(20), and let the hypotenuse equal 1. The green triangle then

has one leg of length 1, another length of unknown length X, and a hypotenuse of sqrt(X^2 + 1).

Since the two triangles' perimeters are equal, we have the equation

sin(20) + cos(20) + 1 =

1 + X + sqrt(X^2 + 1)

sin(20) + cos(20) =

X + sqrt(X^2 + 1)

If we use the technique for solving algebraic equations with square

root and linear terms, we get

[sin(20) + cos(20) - X]^2 = X^2 + 1

sin(20)^2 + 2sin(20)cos(20) + 2cos(20)^2 - 2sin(20)X - cos(20)X + X^2

= X^2 + 1

1 + 2sin(20)cos(20) - 2sin(20)X - 2cos(20)X + X^2

= X^2 + 1

2sin(20)cos(20) - 2sin(20)X - 2cos(20)X = 0

X = sin(20)cos(20)/[sin(20 + cos(20)] ≈ 0.250753

The angles of the green triangle are 90 degrees, arctan(X/1) ≈ 14.08 degrees, and arctan(1/X) ≈ 75.92 degrees.

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(2) Find the Missing Angles

Problem: Consider a triangle with one angle equal to 45 degrees. An altitude is drawn to partition the original triangle into two smaller right

triangles, colored yellow and purple in the diagram above. If the area of the purple triangle is 1.5 times the area of the yellow triangle, what are

the angles of the original whole triangle?

Solution: An altitude line splits the triangle into two right triangles. The yellow triangle is a 45-45-90-degree triangle, so its legs have equal

length. Without any loss of generality, we can set that length equal to 1. If the purple triangle has 1.5 times the area, then its leg lengths are 1

and 1.5.

Call the top unknown angle of the purple triangle x degrees and the

bottom unknown angle (90-x) degrees. From trigonometry, we know

that

tan(x) = 1.5/1 = 1.5

x = arctan(1.5) ≈ 56.31 degrees

Since 90 - 56.31 = 33.69 and 45 + 56.31 = 101.31, we now have all

the angles of the original triangle: 45°, 33.69°, and 101.31°.

(3) Isosceles Integer Triangle

Problem: An isosceles triangle has a perimeter of 18 and integer side lengths. What is the smallest possible angle measure at one of its

corners?

Solution: There are only a finite number of triangles that have integer side lengths, are isosceles, and have a perimeter of 18. They are:

{5, 5, 8}, {6, 6, 6}, {7, 7, 4}, and {8, 8, 2}

The two candidates for having the smallest angle are the triangles

with sides {5, 5, 8} and {8, 8, 2}, the triangles at the extreme ends of

the list. The key to solving for the angles is the use the Pythagorean

Theorem to find the heights of the altitudes.

Drawing the altitudes of the {5, 5, 8} t riangle, we can see that its

acute angle θ is equal to arctan(3/4) ≈ 36.87 degrees.

Drawing the altitude of the {8, 8, 2} triangle, we can see that its

smallest acute angle φ satisfies the relation tan(φ/2) = 1/sqrt(63), and





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therefore φ is equal to 2*arctan(1/sqrt(63)) ≈ 14.36 degrees. This

means the {8, 8, 2} triangle has the smallest angle.

You can verify that the angles of the {6, 6, 6} and {7, 7, 4} triangles

are all larger than 14.36 degrees. In fact, the {6, 6, 6} triangle is

equilateral, so its angles are all 60 degrees.

(4) Bisected Angle

Problem: Consider a scalene right triangle such that if you draw a line that bisects the mid-sized angle, you end up with two smaller triangles,

one of which has three times the area of the other. What are the angles of this triangle?

Solution: Though no absolute lengths are given in this problem, we can solve it by using relative lengths. Let's set the length of the shorter leg

of the large right triangle equal to 1. If the leg of the small right triangle is x and the other sub-triangle has three times the area, then its other

side has a length of 3x (as implied by the base-height formula for the area of a triangle, since the heights are equal).

If the line segment indicated by the red arrow is an angle bisector,

then the angle θ satisfies the two trigonometric relationships

tan(θ) = x, and

tan(2θ) = 4x

Eliminating the variable x gives us

tan(2θ) = 4tan(θ)

Here we can use the double angle trig identity tan(2θ) = 2tan(θ)/[1 -

tan(θ)^2], which will give us an equation only in the variable "tan(θ)."

Plugging this identity into the equation gives us

2tan(θ)/[1 - tan(θ)^2] = 4tan(θ)

1/[1 - tan(θ)^2] = 2

1 = 2 - 2tan(θ)^2

1 = 2tan(θ)^2

1/sqrt(2) = tan(θ)

θ = arctan(1/sqrt(2)) ≈ 35.26 degrees

The angles of the larger right triangle are 90 degrees, 2θ ≈ 70.53 degrees, and (90-2θ) ≈ 19.47 degrees.





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(5) Angle at the Apex of a Cone

Problem: A quarter circular sector or is removed from a circle and the remainder is folded into a cone by connecting the cut edges. When

viewed from the side, what is the angle at the apex of the cone?

Solution: Let the radius of the original circle be R. When the cone is folded from the 3/4 circular sector, the circumference of the cone's base is

(3/4)*2*pi*R, which implies that the cone's base radius is (3/4)*R. The side length of the cone is R. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, the height

of the cone is

sqrt[ R^2 - (9/16)*R^2 ] = R*sqrt[7/16] = R*sqrt(7)/4

Looking at the cone from the side, the side length is the hypotenuse

of a right triangle with the cone radius and cone height as legs. If we

call the angle at the top θ, then θ satisfies the trigonometric relation

sin(θ/2) = (3R/4) / R = 3/4

Solving this for θ gives us the solution θ = 2*arcsin(3/4) ≈ 97.18

degrees.

(6) Maximum Area of a Triangle

Problem: Two sides of a triangle have lengths 5 and 7. What should the length of the third side be so that the area of the t riangle is

maximized?

Solution: At first glance, this optimization problem might seem like one that should be solved with calculus rather than elementary

trigonometry. If we call the missing side X, then Heron's Formula tells us that the area of the triangle is a function A(x) given by the equation

A(x) = 0.25*sqrt[ 148*X^2 - X^4 - 576 ]

The optimal value of X is obtained by taking the derivative of A(X), setting it equal to zero, and solving for X. However, there is a simplertrigonometric solution to this problem. Recall the triangular area formula for a triangle with two sides of length P and Q and an angle of θ

between them:

Area = 0.5*P*Q*sin(θ)

In our problem, P = 5 and Q = 7, the only variable quantity in this equation is the angle θ, which can range from 0 degrees to 180 degrees. The

area is then (35/2)*sin(θ). This area function is maximized when sin(θ) is maximized, and the maximum value of sin(θ) occurs at θ = 90

degrees where sin(θ) = 1.

If θ = 90 degrees, then the triangle is a right triangle whose legs are 5 and 7 and whose hypotenuse is sqrt(74). Thus, the missing side length

should be sqrt(74) ≈ 8.6023 to achieve the maximum area. The area of this triangle is 0.5*5*7 = 35/2 = 17.5.





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(7) Right Triangles of Equal Area

Problem: Two right triangles share a common side and have equal areas. The hypotenuse of the light green triangle is one of the legs of dark

green triangle stacked on top of it. If the smallest angle of light green triangle is 18 degrees, what are the angles of the dark green triangle?

Solution: Hearkening back to the first problem in this set, the absolute lengths of the sides are not necessary, only the relative lengths. Let's

say the legs of the light green triangle are cos(18) and sin(18) and the hypotenuse is 1. Then one leg of the dark green triangle is 1, the other

leg is an unknown value X, and the hypotenuse is sqrt(X^2 + 1).

If two right triangles have equal areas, then the products of their

respective legs are equal. Thus we have the relation

sin(18)*cos(18) = X*1

X ≈ 0.2938926

The angles of the dark green triangle are then 90 degrees, arctan

(X/1) ≈ 16.38 degrees, and arctan(1/X) ≈ 73.62 degrees.

Algebraically, this problem was much easier to solve than the first.

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7 Hard Trig Problems _ Can You Solve These Challenging Geometry