what is cos A for the triangle shown below?

Question

anonymous · Answer

|dw:1374202090977:dw|

johnweldon1993 · Answer

Are you saying that is a right triangle?

anonymous · Answer

it is asking for cos A, I don't even know what that is...and my drawing stinks but that is exactly what is in book. but I cant find example to show how to work the problem

anonymous · Answer

i mainly need help on explaining what a cos A is and how to find it, then i can do it myself...but is hard if i have no idea what i am suppose to be looking for. i know to use 15, and 17 but how?

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

assuming C is the right angle, we would have something (more) like this

|dw:1374202353136:dw|

anonymous · Answer

yeah, like that

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

with respect to angle A, the length AC here

|dw:1374202402967:dw|

is known as the adjacent side

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

the length AB, which is the longest side, is ALWAYS the hypotenuse

|dw:1374202432986:dw|