www.VirtualNerd.com

How Do You Find a Missing Side of a Right Triangle Using Tangent?

Find the length of a in the triangle given at the right.

Summary

  1. adj- adjacent
  2. opp- opposite
  3. 'a' is a variable that stands for the length of the side CB
  4. tan- the tangent trigonometric ratio

Notes

    1. We have a right triangle and are given one angle and one side, so we can use a trigonometric ratio.
    1. The tangent ratio allows us to work with opposite and adjacent sides of an angle.
    2. tan- the tangent trigonometric ratio
    1. We know the angle and the adjacent side of this right triangle.
    1. We'll need a calculator or trig table for this step and recall how to get 'a' by itself.
    2. 'a' is a variable that stands for the length of the side CB