正弦定律的扩展

Before this, know正弦定律

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The Law of Sines is:

Asin⁡a+Bsin⁡b+Csin⁡c=2rA \sin a+B\sin b+C\sin c=2r

The other Law of Sines is Asin⁡a=Bbsin⁡b\frac{A}{\sin a}=\frac{B}{b\sin b}, but with the same relation with B,C and A,C.

No recipe to follow

These problems have no steps to copy. You have to understand the idea well enough to bend it to a new purpose. These are real problems from the AMC 12 and AIME, the national math competitions for middle and high school students, each with a worked solution on LIVE by Po-Shen Loh.

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Before we extend the law of sines, we have to make sure we know what the law of sines is. Do you know what it is?

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The Law of Sines states that:

Asin⁡a+Bsin⁡b+Csin⁡c=2R\frac{A}{\sin a} + \frac{B}{\sin b} + \frac{C}{\sin c} = 2R

where A,B,CA,B,C are the sides of the triangle, a,b,ca,b,c are the corresponding opposite angles, and RR is the circumradius.

This is very useful, with varied applications in mathematics.

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The law of sines in triangle ABC, with angles a, b, and c across from A, B and C respectively, is:

sin⁡Aa=sin⁡Bb=sin⁡Cc=2R\frac{{\sin A}}{a} = \frac{{\sin B}}{b} = \frac{{\sin C}}{c} = 2R

Where R is the circumradius of the triange.

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The Law of Sines, or LoS, states that in a triangle with sides aa, bb, and cc, asin⁡a=bsin⁡b=csin⁡c=2R\dfrac{a}{\sin a} = \dfrac{b}{\sin b} = \dfrac{c}{\sin c} = 2R

where R is the circumradius of ABC, or the radius of the circle that passes through all 3 vertices of the triangle.

Proof:\huge{Proof:}

For starters, we will only prove the first part of the LoS, namely asin⁡a=bsin⁡b=csin⁡c.\dfrac{a}{\sin a} = \dfrac{b}{\sin b} = \dfrac{c}{\sin c}.

If we call the sides BC, AC, and AB in the diagram aa, bb, and cc respectively in standard fashion and call the altitude dropped from A to D hh, then we get by the definition of sine sin⁡B=hcsin⁡C=hb.\begin {align*} \sin B &= \dfrac{h}{c}\\ \sin C &= \dfrac{h}{b}. \end {align*} STOP here and think: Can i get it on my own from here? What should the next step be? THEN move on. :)

This simplifies into the desired: csin⁡B=h=bsin⁡C;bsin⁡B=csin⁡C.\begin {align} c \sin B &= h = b \sin C;\\ \dfrac {b}{\sin B} &= \dfrac {c}{\sin C}. \end {align}

Now, we can apply this to another side of the triangle to obtain the result including asin⁡A.\dfrac{a}{\sin A}.

The second step is to prove that these are all equal to 22 times RR. However, this is easily done by realizing a strong connection between sines and the circumradius in a triangle.

What is that connection?

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Type a concept, like “slope” or “photosynthesis”.

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