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Re: in center of a triangle

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg19626] Re: [mg19589] in center of a triangle
  • From: "David Park" <djmp at earthlink.net>
  • Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 04:20:42 -0400
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

>Hello!
>
>I was wondering if anyone has seen or has written a Mathematica  procedure to
>generate the incenter of a triangle given the vertices of the triangle.  The
>incenter of a triangle is the point at which the angle bisectors meet.  From
>this point you can draw an inscribed circle in the triangle.
>
>Thanks for any help you could offer on this!!
>
>Tom De Vries
>Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
>

Hi Tom,

Here is a routine which will calculate the incenter and inradius for an inscribed
circle in a general triangle.

InscribedCircle[ptA:{_, _}, ptB:{_, _}, ptC:{_, _}] :=
  Module[{AB, BC, AC, a, b, c, s, ptP, ptQ, AP, BQ, p, q, psol, qsol, pqsol,
    center, radius}, AB = ptB - ptA; BC = ptC - ptB; AC = ptC - ptA;
    a = Sqrt[BC . BC]; b = Sqrt[AC . AC]; c = Sqrt[AB . AB];
    AP = ptB + p*BC - ptA; BQ = ptA + q*AC - ptB;
    psol = Solve[AP . AB/c == AP . AC/b, p][[1,1]];
    qsol = Solve[BQ . BC/a == BQ . (-AB)/c, q][[1,1]];
    ptP = ptB + p*BC /. psol; ptQ = ptA + q*AC /. qsol;
    pqsol = Solve[ptA + p*(ptP - ptA) == ptB + q*(ptQ - ptB), {p, q}][[1]];
    center = ptA + p*(ptP - ptA) /. pqsol; s = (a + b + c)/2;
    radius = Sqrt[((s - a)*(s - b)*(s - c))/s]; {center, radius}]

This tests it on randomly generated triangles.
<< Graphics`Colors`
ran := Random[Real, {0, 5}];

ptA = {ran, ran};
ptB = {ran, ran};
ptC = {ran, ran};
{incenter, inradius} = InscribedCircle[ptA, ptB, ptC];
Show[Graphics[
  {AbsolutePointSize[4], Point /@ {ptA, ptB, ptC},
        Blue, Line[{ptA, ptB, ptC, ptA}],
        OrangeRed, Circle[incenter, inradius],
        Black, Point[incenter]}],

AspectRatio -> Automatic, PlotRange -> All, Background -> Linen,
{Frame -> True, FrameLabel -> {x, y}}];

David Park
djmp at earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/




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