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
Skinny triangle based on the small-angle approximations; and, when formula_5 is in radians. The proof of the skinny triangle solution follows from the small-angle approximation by applying the law of sines. Again referring to figure 1; The term formula_7 represents the base angle of the triangle and is this value because the sum of the internal angles of any triangle (in this case the two base angles plus "θ") are equal to "π". Applying the small angle approximations to the law of sines above results in; the desired result. This result is equivalent to assuming that the length of the base of