The end result of this is that both triangles appear to have 45-degree angles when viewed along the edge of the cardboard.
Source: Original.
Assume that the unspecified parts of the triangles are such that they have right angles at the other corners that are on the table, and let the 30-degree be long enough that (when viewed in cross-section) it has the same size as the 45-degree triangle. Now, let the 45-degree triangle have legs of length 1. The vertical leg of the 30-degree triangle is also 1. Since it's a 30-degree right triangle, we know its hypotenuse is 2 and the other leg is sqrt(3). Now the triangle on the table is a right triangle with one leg of 1 and hypotenuse sqrt(3). The angle we want is the one between those sides, or arccos(1/sqrt(3)). Using the same technique, replacing the 45-degree angle with A and the 30-degree angle with B, and keeping the vertical height as 1, the legs on the table are equal to the cotangents of the vertex angles, so the angle we want is arccos(cot(A)/cot(B)) or arccos(tan(B)/tan(A)).
Another way of looking at this was to imagine that our two triangles had the same height and set this to one unit (the 30 degree triangle would obviously be longer). We could then put these two height sides together to make one edge of a tetrahedron. One face would be the 45 degree triangle, one would be the 30 degree triangle, one would be the cardboard between the triangles and the last face would be the table between the triangles. Make sure you notice that all four faces contain a right angle. Now let's start taking measurements: 45 triangle (angle A): height_A = 1 (by our assumption) length_A = 1 (same as height) = 1/tan(A) hypotenuse_A = 1.414... = sqrt(2) = 1/sin(A) 30 triangle (angle B): height_B = 1 (by our assumption) length_B = 1.732... = sqrt(3) = 1/tan(B) hypotenuse_B = 2 = 1/sin(B) Table T: height_T = 1 unit (same edge as length_A) hypotenuse_T = 1.732... = sqrt(3) = 1/tan(B) (same edge as length_B) angle T = 35.264...degrees - inverse_sin(height_T/hypotenuse_T) length_T = 1.414... = sqrt(2) = 1/tan(T) Cardboard C: height_C = 1.414... = sqrt(2) (same as hypotenuse_A) length_C = 1.414... = sqrt(2) (same as length_T) hypotenuse_T = 2 (same as hypotenuse_B) angle_C of course is a 45 degree angle I solved for the specific case mentioned, but I left the math there which should work on any angles B < A< 90.
For the first problem, imagine a right triangle in the plane of the table, with two sides at the intersection of the vertical plastic triangles with the table, and the third side at right angles to the 45 degree plastic. Since it is parallel to the horizontal line where the cardboard touches the table, the height of the cardboard off the third side is constant. Calling the length of the side under the 45 degree plastic d, the height of the cardboard off the third side is also d. Now draw a vertical line from the intersection of the third side with the the 30 degree plastic, in the plane of the plastic, up to the cardboard. That vertical line and the 30 degree angle form a vertical triangle, and it is easy to calculate the bottom length as d/tan(30 degrees) = d * sqrt(3). (Its hypotenuse, for problem 2, is d/sin(30 degrees)). Back to the horizontal triangle, we know one side is d and the hypotenuse is d*sqrt(3), so cos(z)=1/sqrt(3) or z=arccos(1/sqrt(3)), the required answer. It is pretty complicated to describe the next result without a diagram, so I will just give my general result from similar reasoning: z=arccos(tan(B)/tan(A)). For the second problem, using the nomenclature defined above, the problem amounts to solving a right triangle in the plane of the cardboard with the intersections of the two pieces of plastic and an third line in the same vertical plane as the third line defined above. The hypotenuse of this triangle is d/sin(30 degrees) or d*2. The angle requested is the complement of the angle at the edge of the cardboard, so sin(w)=sqrt(2)/2 and w=arcsin(sqrt(2)/2)=45 degrees. With a similar cop-out about complexity, the general result is w=arcsin(sin(B)/(cos(A)*tan(A)).
Angle between two triangles 60 degrees. For the general case if we call C the horizontal angle between the two triangle, then: C = 90 - arctan (tan B/tan A)