Given any triangle with vertices A,B, and C, and their opposing sides, a,b,and
c, the Law of Sines states: (The Points and their angles are refered to by the
same capital letters, the lengths of the sides are in lower case)
(sin A)/a = (sin B)/b = (sin C)/c.
The Law of cosines states:

a^2 = b^2 + c^2 -2bc cos A
b^2 = a^2 + c^2 -2ac cos B
c^2 = a^2 + b^2 -2ab cos C.

in POV-Ray terms, cos A can be found with vdot(B-A,C-A)/a,c. (In the vdot, use
the position vectors, not the angles at those points. Maybe I should have been
clearer.)

Josh

Jerry wrote:

> In article <394D6897.E18734FB@global2000.net>, Andrea Ryan
> <ary### [at] global2000net> wrote:
>
> >How about putting information about the law of sines and the law of cosines
> >on the page?  They will work with any triangle, not just right triangles.
> >The law of cosines is really just the Pythagorean theorem with a correction
> >factor.
>
> Because I don't remember anything about them whatsoever? :*)
>
> If you can explain them to me, and I find them useful, I will be happy
> to add a second chapter to my page.
>
> Jerry

--
Josh English
eng### [at] spiritonecom
"May your hopes, dreams, and plans not be destroyed by a few zeros."

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