Paper 3, Section II, F

Geometry | Part IB, 2015

State the sine rule for spherical triangles.

Let Δ\Delta be a spherical triangle with vertices A,BA, B, and CC, with angles α,β\alpha, \beta and γ\gamma at the respective vertices. Let a,ba, b, and cc be the lengths of the edges BC,ACB C, A C and ABA B respectively. Show that b=cb=c if and only if β=γ\beta=\gamma. [You may use the cosine rule for spherical triangles.] Show that this holds if and only if there exists a reflection MM such that M(A)=A,M(B)=CM(A)=A, M(B)=C and M(C)=BM(C)=B.

Are there equilateral triangles on the sphere? Justify your answer.

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