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I have a non-right triangle. I will call

the bottom or base edge $b$,
the top left edge $a$,
the top right edge $c$.

Let $ a=c+2 $ and $b=10$. How do I graph a curve where the graph $ x $ and $ y$ coordinates represent the vertex where edges $ a $ and $c$ meet?

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Taking the origin as the intersection of $a$ and $b$, with the equation in terms of the angle $\theta$ at that vertex:

Through the cosine law we have:

$(a-2)^2=a^2+100-20a\cos\theta$ $-4a+4=100-20a\cos\theta$ $a=\frac {96}{20\cos\theta-4}$

With our particular setup, $a$ is the radius. So this is a polar equation, where

$r(\theta)=\frac{96}{20\cos\theta-4}=\frac{24}{5\cos\theta-1}$

we can convert to cartesian coordinates if you want:

$5r\cos\theta-r=24$ $(5r\cos\theta-24)^2=r^2$ $(5x-24)^2=x^2+y^2$ $y^2=24x^2-240x+576$ $y^2=24(x-5)^2-24$ $(x-5)^2-\frac{y^2}{24}=1$

which is a hyperbola. You want the rightmost branch (so $a>0$), which is valid when $\cos\theta<\frac 1 5$.

EDIT: picture time!

diagram of question setup

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    @SubOne added$a$picture. hopefully it helps. I first set it up as a polar equation in $\theta$, with $a$ as the radius. Then I converted to $(x,y)$.2012-06-14