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Big Ideas Math Geometry, 2014

BI

Big Ideas Math Geometry, 2014 View details

6. Solving Right Triangles

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Exercise 6 Page 505

The tangent of an acute angle in a right triangle is the ratio of its opposite leg to its adjacent leg.

∠ C

Practice makes perfect

We want to determine which of the two acute angles in the given diagram has a tangent of 1.5.

The tangent of an acute angle in a right triangle is the ratio of its opposite leg to its adjacent leg. Let's calculate tan A and tan C.

tan =opposite/adjacent
tan A=BC/AB	tan C=AB/BC
tan A=12/18≈ 0.67	tan C=18/12=1.5

We can conclude that the acute angle that has a tangent of 1.5 is ∠ C.

Subchapter links

Communicate Your Answer p.501

Monitoring Progress p.502-504