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[parent] sine of angle of triangle (Derivation)

The cosines law allows to express the cosine of an angle of triangle through the sides:

$\displaystyle \cos\alpha = \frac{b^2+c^2-a^2}{2bc}.$ (1)

Substituting this to the ``fundamental formula of trigonometry'', $$\sin^2\alpha+\cos^2\alpha \;=\;1,$$ we can calculate as follows:
$\displaystyle \sin\alpha$ $\displaystyle \;=\; +\sqrt{1-\left(\frac{b^2+c^2-a^2}{2bc}\right)^2}$    
  $\displaystyle \;=\; \sqrt{\frac{(2bc)^2-(b^2+c^2-a^2)^2}{(2bc)^2}}$    
  $\displaystyle \;=\; \frac{\sqrt{(2bc+b^2+c^2-a^2)(2bc-b^2-c^2+a^2)}}{2bc}$    
  $\displaystyle \;=\; \frac{\sqrt{[(b+c)^2-a^2][a^2-(b-c)^2]}}{2bc}$    
  $\displaystyle \;=\; \frac{\sqrt{(b+c+a)(b+c-a)(a+b-c)(a-b+c)}}{2bc}$    

Thus we have the beautiful formula $$\sin\alpha\;=\; \frac{\sqrt{(-a\!+\!b\!+\!c)(a\!-\!b\!+\!c)(a\!+\!b\!-\!c)(a\!+\!b\!+\!c)}}{2bc}.$$

Substituting (1) similarly to the general formula for the sine of half-angle $$\sin\frac{\alpha}{2} = \pm\sqrt{\frac{1-\cos\alpha}{2}},$$ one can obtain the formula $$\sin\frac{\alpha}{2} \;=\; \sqrt{\frac{(a\!-\!b\!+\!c)(a\!+\!b\!-\!c)}{4bc}}.$$




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See Also: difference of squares


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Cross-references: sine, formula, calculate, sides, triangle, angle, cosine, cosines law

This is version 2 of sine of angle of triangle, born on 2008-10-01, modified 2008-10-01.
Object id is 11117, canonical name is SineOfAngleOfTriangle.
Accessed 410 times total.

Classification:
AMS MSC51M04 (Geometry :: Real and complex geometry :: Elementary problems in Euclidean geometries)

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