The Law of Cosines and Its

Applications
Lesson 5.2
 The Law of Cosines
• This law states the following:

“The square of the length of one

side is equal to the sum of the
squares of the other two sides
minus the product of twice the
two sides and the cosine of the
angle between them.”
 Law of Cosines

The Law of Cosines can be used in the following situations:

 Two sides and the included angle are known
 Three sides are known
 FORMULA TO SOLVE FOR
ANGLES
< A = cos ֿ ¹ (b² + c² - a²)
2bc
< B = cos ֿ ¹ (a² + c² - b²)
2ac
< C = cos ֿ ¹ (a² + b² - c²)
2ab
 FORMULA TO SOLVE FOR
SIDES OF A TRIANGLE
a² = b² + c² - 2bc (cos A)
a = √b² + c² - 2bc cos A
b² = a² + c² - 2ac (cos B)
b = √a² + c² - 2ac cos B
c² = a² + b² - 2ab (cos C)
c = a² + b² - 2ab cos C
Example 1
Example 2
Activity 1: Practice Makes Perfect
 Activity 2: Sketch Me If You Can
• Draw the triangle that best describes each of
the situations given below. Label the given
parts.
1. In PQR, PQ is 7 cm long, QR is 5 cm, and the
angle between them measures 52º.
2. XYZ is an isosceles triangle. Its vertex angle Y
measures 35º and each leg is 8cm long.
3. In ABC, AB is 15 cm long, BC is 4 cm long and
makes an angle measuring 138º with AB.
4. In ABC, all sides measures 10 cm.
5. PQR is Isosceles . <Q is the vertex angle and it
measures 55º and one leg is 7 cm long.
 Activity 4: Problem Solving
For each of the given situational problems:
1. Sketch the required triangle to solve the problem
2. Use the Law of Cosines to solve it.

1. Peter has three sticks measuring 19 cm, 23 cm, and 27

cm. He lays them down to form a triangle. Find the measure
of the angle formed by the 19-cm and the 23-cm sides to
the nearest degree.
2. An aircraft tracking station determines the distance from
a common point O to each aircraft and the angle between
the aircrafts. If <O between the two aircrafts is 49º and the
distances from point O to the two aircrafts are 50 km and
72 km, find the distance between the two aircrafts.
3. A triangular parcel of land has sides 50 ft., 40 ft., and 35
ft. What are the measures of the angles between the sides?