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In geometry, the incircle or inscribed circle of a triangle is the largest circle contained in the triangle; it touches (is tangent to) the three sides. The center of the incircle is a triangle center called the triangle's incenter. An excircle or escribed circle of the triangle is a circle lying outside the triangle, tangent to one of its sides and tangent to the extensions of the other two. Every triangle has three distinct excircles, each tangent to one of the triangle's sides. The center of the incircle, called the incenter, can be found as the intersection of the three internal angle bisectors. The center of an excircle is the intersection of the internal bisector of one angle (at vertex
Suppose
The incenter is the point where the internal angle bisectors of
The distance from vertex
The trilinear coordinates for a point in the triangle is the ratio of all the distances to the triangle sides. Because the incenter is the same distance from all sides of the triangle, the trilinear coordinates for the incenter are[1]
The barycentric coordinates for a point in a triangle give weights such that the point is the weighted average of the triangle vertex positions. Barycentric coordinates for the incenter are given by
where
where
The Cartesian coordinates of the incenter are a weighted average of the coordinates of the three vertices using the side lengths of the triangle relative to the perimeter (that is, using the barycentric coordinates given above, normalized to sum to unity) as weights. The weights are positive so the incenter lies inside the triangle as stated above. If the three vertices are located at
The inradius
See Heron's formula.
Denoting the incenter of
Additionally,[4]
where
The collection of triangle centers may be given the structure of a group under coordinate-wise multiplication of trilinear coordinates; in this group, the incenter forms the identity element.[1]
The distances from a vertex to the two nearest touchpoints are equal; for example:[5]
Suppose the tangency points of the incircle divide the sides into lengths of
and the area of the triangle is
If the altitudes from sides of lengths
The product of the incircle radius
Some relations among the sides, incircle radius, and circumcircle radius are:[9]
Any line through a triangle that splits both the triangle's area and its perimeter in half goes through the triangle's incenter (the center of its incircle). There are either one, two, or three of these for any given triangle.[10]
Denoting the center of the incircle of
and[12]:121,#84
The incircle radius is no greater than one-ninth the sum of the altitudes.[13]:289
The squared distance from the incenter
and the distance from the incenter to the center
The incenter lies in the medial triangle (whose vertices are the midpoints of the sides).[14]:233, Lemma 1
The radius of the incircle is related to the area of the triangle.[15] The ratio of the area of the incircle to the area of the triangle is less than or equal to
Suppose
where
For an alternative formula, consider
The Gergonne triangle (of
This Gergonne triangle,
where
The three lines
The Gergonne point of a triangle has a number of properties, including that it is the symmedian point of the Gergonne triangle.[19]
Trilinear coordinates for the vertices of the intouch triangle are given by
Trilinear coordinates for the Gergonne point are given by
or, equivalently, by the Law of Sines,
An excircle or escribed circle[20] of the triangle is a circle lying outside the triangle, tangent to one of its sides and tangent to the extensions of the other two. Every triangle has three distinct excircles, each tangent to one of the triangle's sides.[21]
The center of an excircle is the intersection of the internal bisector of one angle (at vertex
While the incenter of
The radii of the excircles are called the exradii.
The exradius of the excircle opposite
See Heron's formula.
Let the excircle at side
Then
So, by symmetry, denoting
By the Law of Cosines, we have
Combining this with the identity
But
which is Heron's formula.
Combining this with
Similarly,
and
From the formulas above one can see that the excircles are always larger than the incircle and that the largest excircle is the one tangent to the longest side and the smallest excircle is tangent to the shortest side. Further, combining these formulas yields:[25]
The circular hull of the excircles is internally tangent to each of the excircles and is thus an Apollonius circle.[26] The radius of this Apollonius circle is
The following relations hold among the inradius
The circle through the centers of the three excircles has radius
If
The Nagel triangle or extouch triangle of
The three lines
The splitters intersect in a single point, the triangle's Nagel point
Trilinear coordinates for the vertices of the extouch triangle are given by
Trilinear coordinates for the Nagel point are given by
or, equivalently, by the Law of Sines,
The Nagel point is the isotomic conjugate of the Gergonne point.
In geometry, the nine-point circle is a circle that can be constructed for any given triangle. It is so named because it passes through nine significant concyclic points defined from the triangle. These nine points are:[28][29]
In 1822 Karl Feuerbach discovered that any triangle's nine-point circle is externally tangent to that triangle's three excircles and internally tangent to its incircle; this result is known as Feuerbach's theorem. He proved that:
The triangle center at which the incircle and the nine-point circle touch is called the Feuerbach point.
The points of intersection of the interior angle bisectors of
The excentral triangle of a reference triangle has vertices at the centers of the reference triangle's excircles. Its sides are on the external angle bisectors of the reference triangle (see figure at top of page). Trilinear coordinates for the vertices of the excentral triangle are given by
Let
Euler's theorem states that in a triangle:
where
For excircles the equation is similar:
where
Some (but not all) quadrilaterals have an incircle. These are called tangential quadrilaterals. Among their many properties perhaps the most important is that their two pairs of opposite sides have equal sums. This is called the Pitot theorem.
More generally, a polygon with any number of sides that has an inscribed circle (that is, one that is tangent to each side) is called a tangential polygon.