viewed from earth two stars form an angle of 76.04 degrees. StarA is 23.30 light years from earth star Bis 34.76 light years from earth sketch a diagram modeling this situation and find how many light years the stars are from eachother

Question

anonymous · Answer

I suppose that you have to use the law of Sines. Are you familiar with it?

anonymous · Answer

yeah i was thinking i could use soh cah toa but its not a right angle so am i still allowed?

across · Answer

Draw a triangle. Label one of the angles as 76.04 degrees and the two sides adjacent to this angle as 34.76 and 23.30. Then use the law of cosines to determine the side opposite to the angle.

anonymous · Answer

so i just put cos of 23.3/24.76

across · Answer

The Law of Cosines is as follows:
$$c^2=a^2+b^2-2abcos(α)$$Where α is 76.04, a is 34.76 and b is 23.30. Then solve for c.

anonymous · Answer

oh i see i  got 21.29 as my answer

anonymous · Answer

looks good to me.  i get 
$$\sqrt{1774.38}=44.12$$ rounded

anonymous · Answer

oh maybe i messed up

anonymous · Answer

or maybe i did haha i just plugged it in to my calculator

anonymous · Answer

i am not so good with calculator. here is what i wrote http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=x^2%3D23.3^2%2B34.76^2-2*23.3*34.76cos%2876.14%29+degrees

anonymous · Answer

you can check my numbers i will not insist they are right. i often make mistakes