This week, my best mistake was getting confused about when to use sine law vs. cosine law. At first, I just guessed which formula to use by guessing instead of looking at what the triangle gave me, and there sides. Whether I had two sides and an angle, or two angles and a side. That made solving questions way harder than it needed to be. I would say I generally understand this unit pretty well and its operations. My biggest problems with understanding math is my inability to sometimes remember the processes, even if I’m getting them right. I understand that sine law works best when I have matching angle-side pairs, and cosine law is for when I don’t have enough to use sine law especially for finding unknown angles in obtuse triangles. I also still use SOH CAH TOA for right triangles, and those ratios help me set up the right formulas when Im doing something like obtuse where its multiple processes. When finding angles, using the inverse sine or cosine at the end is key, something I missed at first. The process can be a lot, but knowing what each law is best used for makes it easier. I’ve realized that slowing down and checking what kind of triangle I’m working with saves time and helps me avoid getting stuck.
