SL Unit 5 – Trigonometry

5.2 Ambiguous Case & Area of a Triangle

THE AMBIGUOUS CASE OF THE SINE LAW
When using the Sine Law, it is sometimes not clear whether the unknown angle is acute or obtuse. This
occurs when you are given an angle, the adjacent and the opposite sides and the opposite side is smaller
than the adjacent side. If this is the case, then there are two possible triangles that can be drawn.

Example 1: Given ABC, with  B = 300, c = 12 cm, b = 9 cm, there are two ways to draw the
triangle.  C can be acute. or  C can be obtuse
A
A
12 cm
9 cm
12 cm
9 cm
300 300
B B C
C
Sometimes the context of the question will make clear whether the unknown angle is obtuse or acute. In
other cases, you will be required to find two different solutions to the problem.

Example 2
Determine whether the ambiguous case exists in each of the following:
a) ABC, where A = 50, a = 9, b = 8

b) ABC, where A = 50, a = 7, b = 8

c) XYZ, where Z = 37, x = 17.2, z = 13.5

d) JKL, where L = 50, k = 18.7, j = 12.1

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SL Unit 5 – Trigonometry
5.2 Ambiguous Case & Area of a Triangle
Example 3
Joe and George are part of a scientific team studying thunderclouds. The team is about to launch a
weather balloon into an active part of a cloud. Joe’s rope is 7.8 m long and makes an angle of 360 with
the ground. George’s rope is 5.9 m long. How far, to the nearest tenth of a metre, is Joe from George?

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SL Unit 5 – Trigonometry
5.2 Ambiguous Case & Area of a Triangle

We know that the area of triangle is:

If we don’t know the height, how can we calculate the area of a triangle?

1.

In general we can label a triangle as follows:

Let’s develop of a formula for finding the area of a triangle where you do not know the height:

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SL Unit 5 – Trigonometry
5.2 Ambiguous Case & Area of a Triangle

PRACTICE
1.

2. A triangle has sides of length 10 and 11 and an area of 50 . Show that the included angle
may take two different possible sizes.