Law of cosines . The power of the point with respect to the circle is equal to both and . Therefore, which is the law of cosines. Using algebraic measures for line segments (allowing negative numbers as lengths of segments) the case of obtuse angle () and acute angle () can be treated simultaneously. By using the law of sines and knowing that the angles of a triangle must sum to 180 degrees, we have the following system of equations (the three unknowns are the angles): Then, by using the third equation of the system, we obtain a system of two equations in
Triangle the North Pole is a line of longitude; so there are right angles at the two points on the equator. Moreover, the angle at the North Pole is also 90° because the other two vertices differ by 90° of longitude. So the sum of the angles in this triangle is . The triangle encloses 1/4 of the northern hemisphere (90°/360° as viewed from the North Pole) and therefore 1/8 of the Earth's surface, so in the formula ; thus the formula correctly gives the sum of the triangle's angles as 270°. From the above angle sum formula we can also