Sections:

Law of Sines and Law of Cosines, Page 8

Ambiguous Case: Example

Let’s go through one more example before beginning your self-check.

Given triangle ABC, with A = 115°, a = 12, and b = 15, solve the triangle (round to the nearest tenth).

The diagram for this triangle is as follows: 

5.2.8 graphic 1

Notice that side a of length 12 is not long enough to finish this triangle. That means there is no solution for this particular case.

We can justify this answer since A >=90 and a < b.