My Math Forum Finding the cosine angle

 Calculus Calculus Math Forum

 February 2nd, 2015, 08:59 PM #1 Member   Joined: Jan 2015 From: Colorado Posts: 32 Thanks: 0 Finding the cosine angle So my problem is A basketball gymnasium is 40 meters high, 80 meters wide and 170 meters long. For a half time stunt, the cheerleaders want to run two strings, one from each of the two corners above one basket to the diagonally opposite corners of the gym floor. What is the cosine of the angle made by the strings as they cross? So my work is taking the magnitude of both the equations (80i+170j+40k) and (-80i+170j+40k) which is 192.094 so then I would take that, and divide it by the dot product of my two vectors and take the arccos of that, the dot product I got was ... 24100. so arccos(192.094/24100) my calculator is telling me undef, I don't know where I am going wrong...
 February 3rd, 2015, 06:30 AM #2 Senior Member   Joined: Aug 2014 From: United States Posts: 137 Thanks: 21 Math Focus: Learning I don't think you need to take arccos. After all, the question is not asking for the angle; only the cosine of the angle. Also, $\displaystyle \cos \theta = \frac{u\cdot v} {|u||v|}$ If you wanted to find the angle, you would have $\displaystyle\cos \theta = \frac{24100} {192.094^2}$ Last edited by neelmodi; February 3rd, 2015 at 06:34 AM.

 Tags angle, cosine, finding

 Thread Tools Display Modes Linear Mode

 Similar Threads Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post Cake Algebra 5 June 25th, 2013 03:07 PM prupel Trigonometry 1 February 12th, 2012 04:11 AM jacquelinerowlinson Trigonometry 2 July 12th, 2011 09:05 AM jordanshaw Algebra 2 January 29th, 2011 03:08 PM supercrewed Math Events 9 November 14th, 2009 08:46 PM

 Contact - Home - Forums - Cryptocurrency Forum - Top