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Ambiguous Case Desmos

June 16, 2026

My class was working on exam review and came across an ambiguous case question. Here it is:

Angle A is 30 degrees, side b is 40 cm. Find the side length of BC that will allow for 2 triangles to be formed.

I’ve done some fiddling with desmos geometry and I think I have a pretty good illustration for this question

https://www.desmos.com/geometry/ac2yadxuui

The bottom point, on the circle can move, and that will show the red sides of the 2 triangles created. The black side is the case where there is 1 triangle, the right triangle, when the side length is 20. There will be 2 triangles until the side length is 40 and from there there will only be one again. It’s neat to be able to build and show these models to explore relationships in geometry.

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