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Contact Triangle


ContactTriangle

The contact triangle of a triangle DeltaABC, also called the intouch triangle, is the triangle DeltaC_AC_BC_C formed by the points of tangency of the incircle of DeltaABC with DeltaABC.

The contact triangle is therefore the pedal triangle of DeltaABC with respect to the incenter I of DeltaABC. It is also the Cevian triangle of DeltaABC with respect to the Gergonne point Ge (Kimberling 1998, p. 158) and the cyclocevian triangle with respect to the same point.

The contact triangle is the polar triangle of the incircle.

The contact triangle has equivalent trilinear vertex matrices

V=[0 (ac)/(a-b+c) (ab)/(a+b-c); (bc)/(-a+b+c) 0 (ab)/(a+b-c); (bc)/(-a+b+c) (ac)/(a-b+c) 0]
(1)
V=[0 sec^2(1/2B) sec^2(1/2C); sec^2(1/2A) 0 sec^2(1/2C); sec^2(1/2A) sec^2(1/2B) 0].
(2)

The side lengths of DeltaC_AC_BC_C are

a^'=(-a+b+c)cos(1/2A)
(3)
b^'=(a-b+c)cos(1/2B)
(4)
c^'=(a+b-c)cos(1/2C).
(5)

The area is given by

Delta^'=((a+b-c)(a-b+c)(-a+b+c))/(4abc)Delta
(6)
=(2r^2s)/(abc)Delta
(7)
=(Delta^2)/(2Rs),
(8)

where Delta, r, s, and R are the area, inradius, semiperimeter, and circumradius, respectively, of the reference triangle DeltaABC. This is the same area as the extouch triangle.

ContactTriangleIteration

Beginning with an arbitrary triangle Delta, find the contact triangle C. Then find the contact triangle C^' of that triangle, and so on. Then the resulting triangle C^((infty)) approaches an equilateral triangle (Goldoni 2003). The analogous result also holds for iterative construction of excentral triangles (Johnson 1929, p. 185; Goldoni 2003).

The Gergonne point Ge of DeltaABC is equivalent to the symmedian point K of DeltaC_AC_BC_C.

The following table gives the centers of the contact triangle in terms of the centers of the reference triangle for Kimberling centers X_n with n<=100.


See also

Adams' Circle, Extouch Triangle, Gergonne Point, Pedal Triangle, Seven Circles Theorem, Tangential Triangle

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References

Danneels, E. "The Intouch Triangle and the OI-Line." Forum Geometricorum 4, 125-134, 2004. http://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2004volume4/FG200416index.html.Goldoni, G. "Problem 10993." Amer. Math. Monthly 110, 155, 2003.Johnson, R. A. Modern Geometry: An Elementary Treatise on the Geometry of the Triangle and the Circle. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1929.Kimberling, C. "Triangle Centers and Central Triangles." Congr. Numer. 129, 1-295, 1998.Oldknow, A. "The Euler-Gergonne-Soddy Triangle of a Triangle." Amer. Math. Monthly 103, 319-329, 1996.

Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha

Contact Triangle

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Contact Triangle." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/ContactTriangle.html

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