Geometric Solution of a Trigonometric Equation
Geometric Solution of a Trigonometric Equation
This Demonstration shows a geometric solution for the trigonometric equation for the unknown . Let be a right triangle with one leg and hypotenuse of length 1. Draw a circle with center the midpoint of and radius 1/2. Draw a ray through at an angle with respect to . The orthogonal projection of onto the ray has length . Let be a point of the circle such that . Then the solution is .
sinγ=sinμcosδ
γ
ABC
AB=sinμ
AC
AC
A
δ
AB
AE
AB
sinμcosδ
G
AE=AG
γ=∠ACG