This week we learned how to find a right triangle’s angle by the side we are given within the triangle. we also learned how to punch the equation into a scientific calculator so that we end up with the correct answer. This was very similar to learning about how we solve for a side but now we are solving within the triangle.

when solving for a right triangle angle you need to…

1. write SOH CAH TOA at the top of your page as a reminder of what sign you will be using for the equation
2. Then you should label the hypotenuse, opposite, and adjacent side
3. In this case, I am given the hypotenuse which is 20, and the adjacent side which is 10 (reminder: when solving for an angle you do not need all side measurements)
4. Now we know that we have the hypotenuses and the adjacent side which will result in us using Cosine for this equation
5. so you will write Cosθ (θ = theta = missing angle) = 10/20 (10 over 20) because Cosine = Adjacent over hypotenuse
6. because we are looking for an angle we have to add (-1) into the equation  so we will multiply Cos-1  to both sides ———-> it should look like this: Cos-1 Cosθ = Cos-1 (10/20) (we put the 10 and 20 in brackets because we are multiplying)
7. then the Cos-1 and Cosθ should cancel each other out which leaves us with        θ = Cos-1 (10/20)
8. punch this into your scientific, use the shift key so that the (-1) will appear in front of the cosine or whatever sign you will be using
9. θ = Cos-1 (10/20) = 62.96*

I chose this topic as we were learning about it a lot in class and also because I had some trouble with this. I would make the mistake of not pressing the shift key in my calculator which would result in me getting the wrong answer. I have learned that the shift key is used when solving for an angle and a friendly reminder is seeing a theta. I would make the mistake of solving for the side truing it into the angle. this is a very common mistake which I thought to teach myself more about and inform others of this little mistake as it will make the entire question wrong. remembering to isolate the theta is a huge deal when going to solve the final equation because if you don’t do the proper steps before solving you could potentially get it wrong. aside from some mistakes I made when learning this in the trigonometry unit, I think it is so cool that finding dies in angles has very similar equations with little differences such as using a shift key and using different signs. overall I enjoyed learning this as it made me more aware when reading/solving questions regarding the angle and not to mistake it for the side.