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Archimedes' Circles


ArchimedesCircles

Draw the perpendicular line from the intersection of the two small semicircles in the arbelos. The two circles C_1 and C_2 tangent to this line, the large semicircle, and each of the two semicircles are then congruent and known as Archimedes' circles.

For an arbelos with outer semicircle of unit radius and parameter r, Archimedes' circles have radii

 rho=1/2r(1-r)
(1)

and centers

C_1=(1/2r(1+r),rsqrt(r-1))
(2)
C_2=(1/2r(3-r),(1-r)sqrt(r)).
(3)

Circles that are constructed in a natural way using an arbelos and are congruent to Archimedes' circles are known as Archimedean circles.


See also

Arbelos, Archimedean Circle, Bankoff Circle, Semicircle

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Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Archimedes' Circles." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/ArchimedesCircles.html

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