3/13/2015 CircumcircleofaTriangleMathOpenReference

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Circumcircleofatriangle FromLatin:circum"around"

Acirclewhichpassesthroughallthreeverticesofatriangle
Also"Circumscribedcircle".
Trythis Dragtheorangedotsoneachvertextoreshapethetriangle.Notethatthecircumcircle
alwayspassesthroughallthreepoints.

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Thecircumcirclealwayspassesthroughallthreeverticesofatriangle.Itscenterisatthepointwhere
alltheperpendicularbisectorsofthetriangle'ssidesmeet.Thiscenteriscalledthecircumcenter.See
circumcenterofatriangleformoreaboutthis.

Notethatthecenterofthecirclecanbeinsideoroutsideofthetriangle.Adjustthetriangleaboveand
trytoobtainthesecases.

Theradiusofthecircumcircleisalsocalledthetriangle'scircumradius.

Forrighttriangles
Inthecaseofarighttriangle,thehypotenuseisadiameterofthe
circumcircle,anditscenterisexactlyatthemidpointofthe
hypotenuse.ThisisthesamesituationasThalesTheorem,where
thediametersubtendsarightangletoanypointonacircle's
circumference.

Ifyoudragthetriangleinthefigureaboveyoucancreatethissame
situation.

Forequilateraltriangles
Inthecaseofanequilateraltriangle,whereallthreesides(a,b,c)arehavethesamelength,theradius
ofthecircumcircleisgivenbytheformula:

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Calculator

wheresisthelengthofasideofthetriangle.

Ifyouknowallthreesides
Ifyouknowthelength(a,b,c)ofthethreesidesofatriangle,theradiusofitscircumcircleisgivenby
theformula:

Calculator

Ifyouknowonesideanditsoppositeangle
Thediameterofthecircumcircleisgivenbytheformula:

Calculator

whereaisthelengthofoneside,andAistheangleoppositethatside.
Thisgivesthediameter,sotheradusishalfofthat

ThisisderivedfromtheLawofSines.

Constructionofatriangle'scircumcircle
Itispossibletoconstructthecircumcenterandcircumcircleofatrianglewithjustacompassand
straightedge.ConstructionoftheCircumcircleofaTrianglehasananimateddemonstrationofthe
technique,andaworksheettotryityourself.

Relatedtriangletopics

General
Triangledefinition
Hypotenuse
Triangleinteriorangles
Triangleexteriorangles
Triangleexteriorangletheorem
PythagoreanTheorem
ProofofthePythagoreanTheorem
Pythagoreantriples
Trianglecircumcircle
Triangleincircle
Trianglemedians
Midsegmentofatriangle
Triangleinequality
Side/anglerelationship

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Perimeter/Area
Perimeterofatriangle
Areaofatriangle
Heron'sformula
Areaofanequilateraltriangle
Areabythe"sideangleside"method
Areaofatrianglewithfixedperimeter

Triangletypes
Righttriangle
Isoscelestriangle
Scalenetriangle
Equilateraltriangle
Equiangulartriangle
Obtusetriangle
Acutetriangle
345triangle
306090triangle
454590triangle

Trianglecenters
Incenterofatriangle
Circumcenterofatriangle
Centroidofatriangle
Orthocenterofatriangle
Eulerline

CongruenceandSimilarity
Congruenttriangles

Solvingtriangles
SolvingtheTriangle
Lawofsines
Lawofcosines

Trianglequizzesandexercises
Triangletypequiz
BallBoxproblem
HowManyTriangles?
SatelliteOrbits

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