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If I have a triangle, and I wanted to place a circle with a given diameter that fits snuggly inside any one of the three angles, how can I find the x, y points of where the triangle and circle meet?

David Whitten
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  • Follow-up question: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/266554/finding-tangent-points-of-circle-inside-a-triangle –  Jan 04 '13 at 19:01

1 Answers1

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As a hint: if the diameter is $d$ and the angle at a specific vertex is $\alpha$ then the distances from that vertex along each side is $$ \frac{d}{2} \times \frac{1}{\tan\left(\frac{\alpha}{2}\right)}.$$

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Henry
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  • Very interesting idea. I will play arond with this. Thanks so much. – David Whitten Dec 28 '12 at 02:34
  • @David When you write a follow-up question, like you did at http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/266554/finding-tangent-points-of-circle-inside-a-triangle , it's a good idea to link the questions to each other, as I did in comments. SE software detects intrasite links and puts them in the Linked sidebar on the right. –  Jan 04 '13 at 19:04