Trigonometry (3)

12 Contents

12.1 Angle between Two Straight Lines

12.2 Angle between a Straight Line and a Plane

12.3 Angle between Two Planes

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 12 Trigonometry (3)
12.1 Angle between Two Straight Lines
The angle between two intersecting straight lines l1 and l2 is given by the acute
angle between the two straight lines as shown in Fig. 12.6. If two straight lines
on a plane do not intersect, they are parallel.

Fig Fig
12.6 12.8
In three dimensions, when two lines do intersect, we can simply consider
Home the plane containing these intersecting lines, as shown in Fig. 12.8.

Content
In three dimensions, the angle between two intersecting straight lines
is the acute angle between the straight lines lying on the same plane,

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 12 Trigonometry (3)
12.1 Angle between Two Straight Lines

Example 12.1

Fig.12.10 shows a right pyramid VABCD with a square

base. The length of each slant edge is 10 cm and each
side of the base is 8 cm long. VN is the height of the right
pyramid.

(a) Find the angle between the line VB and the line VC.

(b) Find the angle between the line VB and the line VD.
Fig 12.10
(Give the answers correct to 3 significant figures.)
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Content

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 12 Trigonometry (3)
12.1 Angle between Two Straight Lines
Solution:

(a) Consider a triangle with sides VB and VC, in this

case, ∆VBC.

BC 2 = VB 2 + VC 2 − 2(VB )(VC ) cos ∠BVC

82 = 10 2 + 10 2 − 2(10)(10) cos ∠BVC
64 = 100 + 100 − 200 cos ∠BVC
Fig 12.10
136
cos ∠BVC =
200
Home ∠BVC ≈ 47.1563° Since ∆VBC is an isosceles
triangle, students may use
= 47.2° (correct to 3 significant figures) another method by drawing the
Content
altitude bisecting ∆VBC and
using simple trigonometric
ratio to find the required angle.

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 12 Trigonometry (3)
12.1 Angle between Two Straight Lines
Solution:
(b) Consider a triangle with sides VB and VD,
in this case, ∆VBD.

DB 2 = 82 + 82
DB = 128
DN = 4 2
DN 4 2 Fig 12.10
sin ∠DVN = =
DV 10
∠DVN ≈ 34.4499°
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∠BVD = 2∠DVN
Content ≈ 68.8998
= 68.9° (correct to 3 significant figures)

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 12 Trigonometry (3)
12.2 Angle between a Straight Line and a Plane
When a line cuts a plane at a point P like a javelin hitting a lawn as shown
in Fig. 12.31, the angle between the line and the plane is defined as the
angle between PA and PB, where PB is the projection of PA on the plane.

Fig 12.31

In three dimensions, the angle between a straight line and a plane is the
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acute angle between the straight line and its projection on the plane.
Content
PA, PB and the vertical line AB form a right-angled triangle perpendicular to
the plane. Therefore, it will be easier to find the angle between a straight line
and a plane if we identify a right-angled triangle involved.

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 12 Trigonometry (3)
12.3 Angle between Two Planes
The angle between two planes is defined as the acute angle between the
perpendiculars to the intersecting lines of the two planes.

Fig. 12.54
As shown in Fig. 12.54, the intersection of the two planes is PQ. AP and CQ
lie on Plane I. BP and DQ lie on Plane II. AP ⊥ PQ and BP ⊥ PQ. Therefore,
∠APB(θ) is the angle between two planes.
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Content In three dimensions, the angle between two planes is the acute angle
between two perpendiculars on the respective planes to the intersection
of the two planes.

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