Question

The legs of a right triangle are lengths x and x√3. The cosine of the smallest angle of the triangle is _____.


1/2

√3

(√3)/2

2√3

Answer 1

help please

Answer 2

do you know the law of cosine?

Answer 3

yes cos= adj/hypo

Answer 4

@NooriK.

Answer 5

the law is
\[\cos a = \frac{ B^2 + C^2 - A^2 }{ 2bc }\]
A,B and C are the legs of the triangle
a,b and c are the angles of the triangle

Answer 6

okay so how can I use the info they gave to solve this equation?

Answer 7

sorry i got drifted away, it's like you have said
cos = adj / hyp
then you would divide
\[\cos = \frac{ x }{ x \sqrt{3} }\]

Answer 8

you cant have root 3 on the bottom so its x root 3/3x?

Answer 9

or do the x's cancel out?

Answer 10

in the question you haven't told which one is the adj and which is the hyp, so i suppose it would be the opposite
\[\cos = x \sqrt{3}/x\]
but in other problems you have to draw the triangle to solve the problem, or you'll get wasted, the i'm right now XD

Answer 11

wait what?

Answer 12

you have to draw the triangle like
then it would be solved
or you'll get lost

Answer 13

without drawing it would be hard to solve

Answer 14

can you solve it?

Answer 15

\[\cos = adj/hypo = x \sqrt{3}/x = \sqrt{3}\]

Answer 16

so the x's cancel out giving us root 3 as the answer?

Answer 17

indeed