Circumradius

The circumradius of a cyclic polygon is a radius of the circle inside which the polygon can be
inscribed. Similarly, the circumradius of a polyhedron is the radius of a circumsphere
touching each of the polyhedron's vertices, if such a sphere exists. Every triangle and every
tetrahedron has a circumradius, but not all polygons or polyhedra do. However, regular
polygons and regular polyhedra posses a circumradius.

The following table summarizes the inradii from some nonregular circumscriptable polygons.

polygon inradius
3, 4, 5 triangle

vvvvv30-60-90
triangle
diamond

golden rectangle

golden triangle

isosceles right triangle

isosceles triangle

rectangle

right triangle

For a triangle with side lengths  ,  , and  ,

(1)
 (2)

where   is the semiperimeter.

The circumradius of a triangle is connected to other triangle quantities by a number of

beautiful relations, including

(3)

(4)

(5)

where   is the inradius and   is the semiperimeter of the reference triangle (Johnson 1929,

pp. 189-191).

Let   be the distance between incenter   and circumcenter  ,  . Then

(6)

and

(7)

(Mackay 1886-1887; Casey 1888, pp. 74-75). These and many other identities are given in
Johnson (1929, pp. 186-190).

This equation can also be expressed in terms of the radii of the three mutually
tangent circles centered at the triangle's vertices. Relabeling the diagram for the Soddy
circles with polygon vertices  ,  , and   and the radii  ,  , and  , and using
 (8)
(9)
(10)

then gives

(11)

The hypotenuse of a right triangle is a diameter of the triangle's circumcircle, so the

circumradius is given by

(12)

where   is the hypotenuse.

The circumradius of a cyclic quadrilateral with side lengths  ,  ,  , and   and semiperimeter   

is given by

(13)

The circumradius of a regular polygon with   sides and side length   is given by

(14)

For a Platonic or Archimedean solid, the circumradius   of the solid can be expressed in
terms of the inradius   of the dual, midradius  , and edge length of the solid   as

(15)

(16)

and these radii obey

(17)
SEE ALSO:Carnot's Theorem, Circumcircle, Circumsphere, Cyclic Polygon, Cyclic
Quadrilateral, Incircle, Inradius, Midradius, Radius
REFERENCES:
Casey, J. A Sequel to the First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid, Containing an Easy Introduction to Modern Geometry with
Numerous Examples, 5th ed., rev. enl.Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, & Co., 1888.
Johnson, R. A. Modern Geometry: An Elementary Treatise on the Geometry of the Triangle and the Circle. Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin, 1929.
Mackay, J. S. "Historical Notes on a Geometrical Theorem and its Developments [18th Century]." Proc. Edinburgh Math. Soc. 5,
62-78, 1886-1887.
Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha: Circumradius
CITE THIS AS:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Circumradius." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web
Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Circumradius.html
Wolfram Web Resources

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The Product of the Side Lengths of a Triangle

Jay Warendorff

Projections of Midpoints onto Circumradii

Jay Warendorff
 The Sum of the Squares of the Distances from the Vertices to the Orthocenter

Jay Warendorff

Triangle Altitudes and Circumradius

Jay Warendorff

The Incircle of a triangle

Latin: in - "inside, within" circus - "circle"

Also known as "inscribed circle", it is the largest circle that will fit inside the triangle. Each of the
triangle's three sides is a tangent to the circle.
 Try this Drag the orange dots on each vertex to reshape the triangle. Note how the incircle adjusts to
always be the largest circle that will fit inside the triangle.

The center of the incircle, called the incenter, is the intersection of the angle bisectors. The
bisectors are shown as dashed lines in the figure above.

Constructing the Incircle of a triangle

It is possible to construct the incircle of a triangle using a compass and straightedge.
See Constructing the the incircle of a triangle.

Attributes
Incente
The location of the center of the incircle. The point where the angle bisectors meet.
r

Inradius The radius of the incircle. The radius is given by the formula:

 Calculator

where:
a is the area of the triangle. In the example above, we know all three sides, so Heron's formula is
used.

p is the perimeter of the triangle, the sum of its sides.

Equilateral triangle case

For the special case of an equilateral triangle the inradius is also given by the formula

 Calculator

where S is the length of a side.

Related triangle topics

General

 Triangle definition
 Hypotenuse
 Triangle interior angles
 Triangle exterior angles
 Triangle exterior angle theorem
 Pythagorean Theorem
 Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem
 Pythagorean triples
 Triangle circumcircle
 Triangle incircle
 Triangle medians
 Midsegment of a triangle
 Triangle inequality
 Side / angle relationship

Perimeter / Area

 Perimeter of a triangle
 Area of a triangle
 Heron's formula
 Area of an equilateral triangle
 Area by the "side angle side" method
 Area of a triangle with fixed perimeter

Triangle types

 Right triangle
 Isosceles triangle
 Scalene triangle
 Equilateral triangle
 Equiangular triangle
 Obtuse triangle
 Acute triangle
 3-4-5 triangle
 30-60-90 triangle
 45-45-90 triangle

Triangle centers

 Incenter of a triangle
 Circumcenter of a triangle
 Centroid of a triangle
 Orthocenter of a triangle
 Euler line

Congruence and Similarity

 Congruent triangles

Solving triangles

 Solving the Triangle

 Law of sines
 Law of cosines
 Triangle quizzes and exercises

 Triangle type quiz

 Ball Box problem
 How Many Triangles?
 Satellite Orbits

(C) 2009 Copyright Math Open nscribed and Circumscribed

Triangles
A circle that circumscribes a triangle is a circle containing the triangle such that the
vertices of the triangle are on the circle.

A circle that inscribes a triangle is a circle contained in the triangle that just
touches the sides of the triangle.
Circumscribing a triangle. 
Here is a method for constructing the circle that circumscribes a triangle.

1. Draw the triangle.

2. Draw the perpendicular bisector to each side of the triangle. Draw the lines
long enough so that you see a point of intersection of all three lines.
3. Draw the circle with radius at the intersection point of the bisectors that
passes through one of the vertices. You should see that this circle passes
through all three vertices, and that it is the desired circle.

Inscribing a triangle. 
Here is a method for constructing the circle that inscribes a triangle.

1. Draw the triangle.

2. Draw the angle bisector for each angle of the triangle. Draw the lines long
enough so that you see a point of intersection of all three lines.
3. Draw a line perpendicular to any side that passes through the intersection
point. Mark the point on the side through which this line passes.
4. Draw the circle with radius at the intersection point that passes through the
point you obtained in the last step. This is the desired circle.

Assignment: Draw two triangles of different shapes and then construct the circle
that circumscribes them. Next, draw two triangles and then construct the circle that
inscribecs them.
Reference. All rights reserved
 

Circumscribed circle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Circumscribed circle, C, and circumcenter, O, of a cyclic polygon, P

 In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle which passes through all
the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called
the circumradius.

A polygon which has a circumscribed circle is called a cyclic polygon (sometimes a concyclic polygon,
because the vertices are concyclic). Allregular simple polygons, isosceles trapezoids, all triangles and
all rectangles are cyclic.

A related notion is the one of a minimum bounding circle, which is the smallest circle that completely
contains the polygon within it. Not every polygon has a circumscribed circle, as the vertices of a polygon do
not need to all lie on a circle, but every polygon has a unique minimum bounding circle, which may be
constructed by a linear time algorithm.[1] Even if a polygon has a circumscribed circle, it may not coincide
with its minimum bounding circle; for example, for an obtuse triangle, the minimum bounding circle has the
longest side as diameter and does not pass through the opposite vertex.

Contents

  [hide] 

 1 Triangles

o 1.1 Circumcircle equations

o 1.2 Circumcenter coordinates

 1.2.1 Cartesian coordinates

 1.2.2 Barycentric coordinates as a function of the side lengths

o 1.3 Barycentric coordinates from cross- and dot-products

o 1.4 Parametric equation of a triangle's circumcircle

o 1.5 Angles

o 1.6 Triangle centers on the circumcircle of triangle ABC

o 1.7 Other properties

 2 Cyclic quadrilaterals

 3 Cyclic n-gons

 4 See also

 5 Notes

 6 References

 7 External links

o 7.1 MathWorld

o 7.2 Interactive
Triangles[edit]

All triangles are cyclic, i.e. every triangle has a circumscribed circle. [nb 1]

The circumcenter of a triangle can be found as the intersection of any two of the threeperpendicular
bisectors. (A perpendicular bisector is a line that forms a right angle with one of the triangle's sides and
intersects that side at its midpoint.) This is because the circumcenter is equidistant from any pair of the
triangle's vertices, and all points on the perpendicular bisectors are equidistant from two of the vertices of
the triangle.

Alternate construction of the circumcenter (intersection of broken lines)

An alternate method to determine the circumcenter is to draw any two lines each departing one of the
vertices at an angle with the common side, the common angle of departure being 90° minus the angle of
the opposite vertex. (In the case of the opposite angle being obtuse, drawing a line at a negative angle
means going outside the triangle.)

In coastal navigation, a triangle's circumcircle is sometimes used as a way of obtaining aposition line using
a sextant when nocompass is available. The horizontal angle between two landmarks defines the
circumcircle upon which the observer lies.

The circumcenter's position depends on the type of triangle:

 If and only if a triangle is acute (all angles smaller than a right angle), the circumcenter lies inside
the triangle.

 If and only if it is obtuse (has one angle bigger than a right angle), the circumcenter lies outside the
triangle.

 If and only if it is a right triangle, the circumcenter lies at the center of the hypotenuse. This is one
form of Thales' theorem.

The circumcenter of an acute triangle is inside the triangle

The circumcenter of a right triangle is at the center of the hypotenuse

The circumcenter of an obtuse triangle is outside the triangle

The diameter of the circumcircle can be computed as the length of any side of the triangle, divided by
the sine of the opposite angle. (As a consequence of the law of sines, it does not matter which side is
taken: the result will be the same.) The triangle's nine-point circle has half the diameter of the circumcircle.
The diameter of the circumcircle of the triangle ΔABC is

where a, b, c are the lengths of the sides of the triangle and s = (a + b + c)/2 is the semiperimeter. The
expression   above is the area of the triangle, by Heron's formula.[2]Trigometric
expressions for the diameter of the circumcircle include [1]:p.379

In any given triangle, the circumcenter is always collinear with the centroid and orthocenter. The
line that passes through all of them is known as the Euler line.

The isogonal conjugate of the circumcenter is the orthocenter.

The useful minimum bounding circle of three points is defined either by the circumcircle (where
three points are on the minimum bounding circle) or by the two points of the longest side of the
triangle (where the two points define a diameter of the circle). It is common to confuse the
minimum bounding circle with the circumcircle.

The circumcircle of three collinear points is the line on which the three points lie, often referred to
as a circle of infinite radius. Nearly collinear points often lead to numerical instability in
computation of the circumcircle.

Circumcircles of triangles have an intimate relationship with the Delaunay triangulation of a set of

points.

Circumcircle equations[edit]
In the Euclidean plane, it is possible to give explicitly an equation of the circumcircle in terms of
the Cartesian coordinates of the vertices of the inscribed triangle. Thus suppose that
are the coordinates of points A, B, and C. The circumcircle is then the locus of
points v = (vx,vy) in the Cartesian plane satisfying the equations

guaranteeing that the points A, B, C, and v are all the same

distance r from the common center u of the circle. Using
the polarization identity, these equations reduce to the condition
that thematrix

has a nonzero kernel. Thus the circumcircle may alternatively

be described as the locus of zeros of the determinant of this
matrix:

Expanding by cofactor expansion, let

we then have a|v|2 − 2Sv − b = 0 and,

assuming the three points were not in a line
(otherwise the circumcircle is that line that can
also be seen as a generalized circle with S at
infinity),|v − S/a|2 = b/a + |S|2/a2, giving the
circumcenter S/a and the circumradius √(b/a + |
S|2/a2). A similar approach allows one to
deduce the equation of the circumsphere of
a tetrahedron.

An equation for the circumcircle in trilinear

coordinates x : y : z is a/x + b/y + c/z = 0. An
equation for the circumcircle in barycentric
coordinates x : y : z is a2/x + b2/y + c2/z = 0.

The isogonal conjugate of the circumcircle is

the line at infinity, given in trilinear
coordinates by ax + by + cz = 0 and in
barycentric coordinates by x + y + z = 0.

Additionally, the circumcircle of a triangle

embedded in d dimensions can be found using
a generalized method. Let A, B, and C be d-
dimensional points, which form the vertices of a
triangle. We start by transposing the system to
place C at the origin:

The circumradius, r, is then

where θ is the interior angle

between a and b. The
circumcenter, p0, is given by

This formula only works in

three dimensions as the
cross product is not defined
in other dimensions, but it
can be generalized to the
other dimensions by
replacing the cross products
with following identities:
Circumcen
ter
coordinate
s[edit]
Cartesian
coordinates[
edit]

The Cartesian
coordinates of
the
circumcenter
are

with

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it
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o
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A′
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A 
− 
A 
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=
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In
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B′
= 
B 
− 
A 
a
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re
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′
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 a
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with

Barycent
ric
coordina
tes as a
function
of the
side
lengths[e
dit]

The
circumcent
er
has trilinear
coordinates 
(cos α,
cos β,
cos γ) wher
e α, β, γ ar
e the
angles of
the triangle.
The
circumcent
er
has baryce
ntric
coordinates

[2]

where a, b, c ar
e edge lengths
(BC, CA, AB res
pectively) of the
triangle.

Barycentri
c
coordinate
s from
cross- and
dot-
products[e
dit]
In Euclidean
space, there is
a unique circle
passing through
any given three
non-collinear
points P1, P2,
and P3.
Using Cartesian
coordinates to
represent these
points as spatial
vectors, it is
possible to use
the dot
product and cro
ss product to
calculate the
radius and
center of the
circle. Let

Then the radius o

the circle is given
 The center of the
given by the linea
combination

where

Parametric e
triangle's cir
A unit vector perp
containing the circ

Hence, given the

the circle, P0 and
containing the circ
of the circle startin
proceeding in a po
handed) sense ab

Angles[edit]

 
The angles which
the sides of the tri
which sides meet
angle α meets the
each case at angl
angles). The alter
the angle between
angle in the altern

Triangle cen
of triangle A
In this section, the
labeled A, B, C an
coordinates:

 Steiner point 
(a2 − b2) = the
the circumcirc
(The Steiner e
centroid(ABC
passes throug
ellipse is 1/(a

 Tarry point =
ω) = antipode

 Focus of the K
(C − A) : csc
Other prope
The circumcircle r
incircle radius (Eu

The distance betw

incenter is 
radius and R is th

The product of the

circumcircle radiu

and c is[4] 
Cyclic quadr

Cyclic quadrilaterals

Main article: Cycl

Quadrilaterals tha
particular properti
angles are supple
or π radians).

Cyclic n-gon

For a cyclic polyg

angles are equal i
A cyclic polygon w
all angles equal if
equal (that is, side
4, 6, ... are equal)

A cyclic pentagon
known as a Robb
its diagonals also

In any cyclic n-go
of alternate angle
the sum of the oth
be proven by indu
case replacing a s
noting that these t
old side form a qu
property; the alter
quadrilateral repre
angle sums of the

See also[edit]

 Inscribed circ

 Jung's theore
the diameter 
minimum bou

 Lester's theor

 Circumscribe

 Triangle cente

 Japanese the

 Japanese the
Notes[edit]
1. Jump up^ Th
general equat

radius r in the 

Since this equation

points are required

triangle is defined

required to determ
References[e

1. Jump up^ Dö
Elementary M

2. Jump up^ Wo
3. ^ Jump up to:a b Ne
via proof witho

February 2008

4. Jump up^ Joh
Geometry, Do
5. Jump up^ De
equilateral circ

Gazette 95, M

6. Jump up^ Bu
(2008), "Cyclic

area", Journal

48, doi:10.101

 ^ Coxeter, H.S

to geometry. W

0.

 ^ Megiddo, N.

linear program

problems". SIA

759–776. doi:1

 Kimberling, Cl

central triangle

xxv, 1–295.

 ^ Pedoe, Dan

course. Dover
External link

 Derivation of
triangle at Ma

 Semi-regular
respective ge
rhombi at Dyn
interactive dy
MathWorld[e

 Weisstein, Er

 Weisstein, Er

 Weisstein, Er
circumellipse"
Interactive[e

 Triangle circu
interactive an
 An interactive

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