senso said:
I saw this in a proof for a shm question i did today but didn't understand it. What is going on there. When does sin^2@ + cos^2@ come into it?
(1): 3=asin@
(2): -6root3=2acos@
(1)^2: 9=a^2 sin^2@
(2)^2: 108=4a^2 cos^2@, which becomes 27=a^2 cos^2@
(1)^2 + (2)^2:
9 + 27 = a^2 sin^2@ + a^2 cos^2@
9 + 27 = a^2 (sin^2@ + cos^2@)
9 + 27 = a^2 (1)
a=6 since we define a to be positive
(well you can use the negative if you want, and you'll just get different @)
But you can find a and @ without this squaring and adding. I am just used to it.
Use triangles.
Draw a triangle using equation (1), you get opposite as 3 and hypotenuse as a.
Then add info from equation (2), i.e. you now know adjacent is 3root3.
The angle will be in quadrant 2 though since the sin is +ve and the cos is -ve.
So you can find the angle using tan in the triangle.
Then you can find a now using equation (1) or (2).