In geometry, triangle inequalities are inequalities involving the parameters of triangles, that hold for every triangle, or for every triangle meeting certain conditions. The inequalities give an ordering of two different values: they are of the form "less than", "less than or equal to", "greater than", or "greater than or equal to". The parameters in a triangle inequality can be the side lengths, the semiperimeter, the angle measures, the values of trigonometric functions of those angles, the area of the triangle, the medians of the sides, the altitudes, the lengths of the internal angle bisectors from each angle to the opposite side, the perpendicular bisectors of the sides, the distance from an arbitrary point to another point, the inradius, the exradii, the circumradius, and/or other quantities.
the angle measures A, B, and C of the angles of the vertices opposite the respective sides a, b, and c (with the vertices denoted with the same symbols as their angle measures);
the mediansma, mb, and mc of the sides (each being the length of the line segment from the midpoint of the side to the opposite vertex);
the altitudesha, hb, and hc (each being the length of a segment perpendicular to one side and reaching from that side (or possibly the extension of that side) to the opposite vertex);
the lengths of the internal angle bisectorsta, tb, and tc (each being a segment from a vertex to the opposite side and bisecting the vertex's angle);
the perpendicular bisectorspa, pb, and pc of the sides (each being the length of a segment perpendicular to one side at its midpoint and reaching to one of the other sides);
the lengths of line segments with an endpoint at an arbitrary point P in the plane (for example, the length of the segment from P to vertex A is denoted PA or AP);
the inradiusr (radius of the circleinscribed in the triangle, tangent to all three sides), the exradiira, rb, and rc (each being the radius of an excircle tangent to side a, b, or c respectively and tangent to the extensions of the other two sides), and the circumradiusR (radius of the circle circumscribed around the triangle and passing through all three vertices).
In addition, where the value of the right side is the lowest possible bound,[1]:p. 259 approached asymptotically as certain classes of triangles approach the degenerate case of zero area. The left inequality, which holds for all positive a, b, c, is Nesbitt's inequality.
with equality approached in the limit only as the apex angle of an isosceles triangle approaches 180°.
If the centroid of the triangle is inside the triangle's incircle, then[3]:p. 153
Equivalently, if constitute the sides of a triangle and the triangle's centroid is inside the incircle then the equation has no real roots.
While all of the above inequalities are true because a, b, and c must follow the basic triangle inequality that the longest side is less than half the perimeter, the following relations hold for all positive a, b, and c:[1]:p.267
each holding with equality only when a = b = c. This says that in the non-equilateral case the harmonic mean of the sides is less than their geometric mean, which in turn is less than their arithmetic mean, and which in turn is less than their quadratic mean.
with equality if and only if the triangle is isosceles with apex angle greater than or equal to 60°;[7]:Cor. 3 and
with equality if and only if the triangle is isosceles with apex angle less than or equal to 60°.[7]:Cor. 3
We also have
and likewise for angles B, C, with equality in the first part if the triangle is isosceles and the apex angle is at least 60° and equality in the second part if and only if the triangle is isosceles with apex angle no greater than 60°.[7]:Prop. 5
Further, any two angle measures A and B opposite sides a and b respectively are related according to[1]:p. 264
which is related to the isosceles triangle theorem and its converse, which state that A = B if and only if a = b.
Ono's inequality for acute triangles (those with all angles less than 90°) is
The area of the triangle can be compared to the area of the incircle:
with equality only for the equilateral triangle.[11]
If an inner triangle is inscribed in a reference triangle so that the inner triangle's vertices partition the perimeter of the reference triangle into equal length segments, the ratio of their areas is bounded by[9]:p. 138
Let the interior angle bisectors of A, B, and C meet the opposite sides at D, E, and F. Then[2]:p.18,#762
A line through a triangle’s median splits the area such that the ratio of the smaller sub-area to the original triangle’s area is at least 4/9.[12]
Medians and centroid
The three medians of a triangle each connect a vertex with the midpoint of the opposite side, and the sum of their lengths satisfies[1]:p. 271
For internal angle bisectors ta, tb, tc from vertices A, B, C and circumcenter R and incenter r, we have[2]:p.125,#3005
The reciprocals of the altitudes of any triangle can themselves form a triangle:[15]
Internal angle bisectors and incenter
The internal angle bisectors are segments in the interior of the triangle reaching from one vertex to the opposite side and bisecting the vertex angle into two equal angles. The angle bisectors ta etc. satisfy
in terms of the sides, and
in terms of the altitudes and medians, and likewise for tb and tc .[1]:pp. 271–3 Further,[2]:p.224,#132
Three triangles with vertex at the incenter, OIH, GIH, and OGI, are obtuse:[16]:p.232
> > 90° , > 90°.
Since these triangles have the indicated obtuse angles, we have
and in fact the second of these is equivalent to a result stronger than the first, shown by Euler:[17][18]
The larger of two angles of a triangle has the shorter internal angle bisector:[19]:p.72,#114
Perpendicular bisectors of sides
These inequalities deal with the lengths pa etc. of the triangle-interior portions of the perpendicular bisectors of sides of the triangle. Denoting the sides so that we have[20]
and
Segments from an arbitrary point
Interior point
Consider any point P in the interior of the triangle, with the triangle's vertices denoted A, B, and C and with the lengths of line segments denoted PA etc. We have[1]:pp. 275–7
and more strongly than the second of these inequalities is:[1]:p. 278 If is the shortest side of the triangle, then
with equality in the equilateral case. More strongly, Barrow's inequality states that if the interior bisectors of the angles at interior point P (namely, of ∠APB, ∠BPC, and ∠CPA) intersect the triangle's sides at U, V, and W, then[23]
Also stronger than the Erdős–Mordell inequality is the following:[24] Let D, E, F be the orthogonal projections of P onto BC, CA, AB respectively, and H, K, L be the orthogonal projections of P onto the tangents to the triangle's circumcircle at A, B, C respectively. Then
With orthogonal projections H, K, L from P onto the tangents to the triangle's circumcircle at A, B, C respectively, we have[25]
where R is the circumradius.
Again with distances PD, PE, PF of the interior point P from the sides we have these three inequalities:[2]:p.29,#1045
For interior point P with distances PA, PB, PC from the vertices and with triangle area T,[2]:p.37,#1159
There are various inequalities for an arbitrary interior or exterior point in the plane in terms of the radius r of the triangle's inscribed circle. For example,[27]:p. 109
Let ABC be a triangle, let G be its centroid, and let D, E, and F be the midpoints of BC, CA, and AB, respectively. For any point P in the plane of ABC:
also in terms of the semiperimeter.[5]:p. 206[7]:p. 99 Here the expression where d is the distance between the incenter and the circumcenter. In the latter double inequality, the first part holds with equality if and only if the triangle is isosceles with an apex angle of at least 60°, and the last part holds with equality if and only if the triangle is isosceles with an apex angle of at most 60°. Thus both are equalities if and only if the triangle is equilateral.[7]:Thm. 1
where if the circumcenter is on or outside of the incircle and if the circumcenter is inside the incircle. The circumcenter is inside the incircle if and only if[32]
in terms of the circumradius R, again with the reverse inequality holding for an obtuse triangle.
If the internal angle bisectors of angles A, B, C meet the opposite sides at U, V, W then[2]:p.215,32nd IMO,#1
If the internal angle bisectors through incenter I extend to meet the circumcircle at X, Y and Z then [2]:p.181,#264.4
for circumradius R, and[2]:p.181,#264.4[2]:p.45,#1282
If the incircle is tangent to the sides at D, E, F, then[2]:p.115,#2875
for semiperimeter s.
Inscribed figures
Inscribed hexagon
If a tangential hexagon is formed by drawing three segments tangent to a triangle's incircle and parallel to a side, so that the hexagon is inscribed in the triangle with its other three sides coinciding with parts of the triangle's sides, then[2]:p.42,#1245
Inscribed triangle
If three points D, E, F on the respective sides AB, BC, and CA of a reference triangle ABC are the vertices of an inscribed triangle, which thereby partitions the reference triangle into four triangles, then the area of the inscribed triangle is greater than the area of at least one of the other interior triangles, unless the vertices of the inscribed triangle are at the midpoints of the sides of the reference triangle (in which case the inscribed triangle is the medial triangle and all four interior triangles have equal areas):[9]:p.137
Inscribed squares
An acute triangle has three inscribed squares, each with one side coinciding with part of a side of the triangle and with the square's other two vertices on the remaining two sides of the triangle. (A right triangle has only two distinct inscribed squares.) If one of these squares has side length xa and another has side length xb with xa < xb, then[39]:p. 115
Moreover, for any square inscribed in any triangle we have[2]:p.18,#729[39]
Euler line
A triangle's Euler line goes through its orthocenter, its circumcenter, and its centroid, but does not go through its incenter unless the triangle is isosceles.[16]:p.231 For all non-isosceles triangles, the distance d from the incenter to the Euler line satisfies the following inequalities in terms of the triangle's longest medianv, its longest side u, and its semiperimeter s:[16]:p. 234,Propos.5
For all of these ratios, the upper bound of 1/3 is the tightest possible.[16]:p.235,Thm.6
Right triangle
In right triangles the legs a and b and the hypotenusec obey the following, with equality only in the isosceles case:[1]:p. 280
In terms of the inradius, the hypotenuse obeys[1]:p. 281
and in terms of the altitude from the hypotenuse the legs obey[1]:p. 282
Isosceles triangle
If the two equal sides of an isosceles triangle have length a and the other side has length c, then the internal angle bisectort from one of the two equal-angled vertices satisfies[2]:p.169,#44
Equilateral triangle
For any point P in the plane of an equilateral triangleABC, the distances of P from the vertices, PA, PB, and PC, are such that, unless P is on the triangle's circumcircle, they obey the basic triangle inequality and thus can themselves form the sides of a triangle:[1]:p. 279
However, when P is on the circumcircle the sum of the distances from P to the nearest two vertices exactly equals the distance to the farthest vertex.
A triangle is equilateral if and only if, for every point P in the plane, with distances PD, PE, and PF to the triangle's sides and distances PA, PB, and PC to its vertices,[2]:p.178,#235.4
Two triangles
Pedoe's inequality for two triangles, one with sides a, b, and c and area T, and the other with sides d, e, and f and area S, states that
with equality if and only if the two triangles are similar.
The hinge theorem or open-mouth theorem states that if two sides of one triangle are congruent to two sides of another triangle, and the included angle of the first is larger than the included angle of the second, then the third side of the first triangle is longer than the third side of the second triangle. That is, in triangles ABC and DEF with sides a, b, c, and d, e, f respectively (with a opposite A etc.), if a = d and b = e and angle C > angle F, then
The converse also holds: if c > f, then C > F.
The angles in any two triangles ABC and DEF are related in terms of the cotangent function according to[6]
In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words quadri, a variant of four, and latus, meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, derived from Greek "tetra" meaning "four" and "gon" meaning "corner" or "angle", in analogy to other polygons. Since "gon" means "angle", it is analogously called a quadrangle, or 4-angle. A quadrilateral with vertices , , and is sometimes denoted as .
In geometry, a tetrahedron, also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertices. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ordinary convex polyhedra.
A right triangle or right-angled triangle, sometimes called an orthogonal triangle or rectangular triangle, is a triangle in which two sides are perpendicular, forming a right angle.
In mathematics, the triangle inequality states that for any triangle, the sum of the lengths of any two sides must be greater than or equal to the length of the remaining side. This statement permits the inclusion of degenerate triangles, but some authors, especially those writing about elementary geometry, will exclude this possibility, thus leaving out the possibility of equality. If a, b, and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle then the triangle inequality states that
In geometry, the incircle or inscribed circle of a triangle is the largest circle that can be contained in the triangle; it touches the three sides. The center of the incircle is a triangle center called the triangle's incenter.
In Euclidean geometry, a cyclic quadrilateral or inscribed quadrilateral is a quadrilateral whose vertices all lie on a single circle. This circle is called the circumcircle or circumscribed circle, and the vertices are said to be concyclic. The center of the circle and its radius are called the circumcenter and the circumradius respectively. Other names for these quadrilaterals are concyclic quadrilateral and chordal quadrilateral, the latter since the sides of the quadrilateral are chords of the circumcircle. Usually the quadrilateral is assumed to be convex, but there are also crossed cyclic quadrilaterals. The formulas and properties given below are valid in the convex case.
In geometry, the incenter of a triangle is a triangle center, a point defined for any triangle in a way that is independent of the triangle's placement or scale. The incenter may be equivalently defined as the point where the internal angle bisectors of the triangle cross, as the point equidistant from the triangle's sides, as the junction point of the medial axis and innermost point of the grassfire transform of the triangle, and as the center point of the inscribed circle of the triangle.
In mathematics, the inverse trigonometric functions are the inverse functions of the trigonometric functions, under suitably restricted domains. Specifically, they are the inverses of the sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, and cosecant functions, and are used to obtain an angle from any of the angle's trigonometric ratios. Inverse trigonometric functions are widely used in engineering, navigation, physics, and geometry.
In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a triangle is a circle that passes through all three vertices. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter of the triangle, and its radius is called the circumradius. The circumcenter is the point of intersection between the three perpendicular bisectors of the triangle's sides, and is a triangle center.
In Euclidean geometry, the Fermat point of a triangle, also called the Torricelli point or Fermat–Torricelli point, is a point such that the sum of the three distances from each of the three vertices of the triangle to the point is the smallest possible or, equivalently, the geometric median of the three vertices. It is so named because this problem was first raised by Fermat in a private letter to Evangelista Torricelli, who solved it.
In data analysis, cosine similarity is a measure of similarity between two non-zero vectors defined in an inner product space. Cosine similarity is the cosine of the angle between the vectors; that is, it is the dot product of the vectors divided by the product of their lengths. It follows that the cosine similarity does not depend on the magnitudes of the vectors, but only on their angle. The cosine similarity always belongs to the interval For example, two proportional vectors have a cosine similarity of 1, two orthogonal vectors have a similarity of 0, and two opposite vectors have a similarity of -1. In some contexts, the component values of the vectors cannot be negative, in which case the cosine similarity is bounded in .
In Euclidean geometry, a tangential quadrilateral or circumscribed quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral whose sides all can be tangent to a single circle within the quadrilateral. This circle is called the incircle of the quadrilateral or its inscribed circle, its center is the incenter and its radius is called the inradius. Since these quadrilaterals can be drawn surrounding or circumscribing their incircles, they have also been called circumscribable quadrilaterals, circumscribing quadrilaterals, and circumscriptible quadrilaterals. Tangential quadrilaterals are a special case of tangential polygons.
In mathematics, the Hadwiger–Finsler inequality is a result on the geometry of triangles in the Euclidean plane. It states that if a triangle in the plane has side lengths a, b and c and area T, then
In Euclidean geometry, the Erdős–Mordell inequality states that for any triangle ABC and point P inside ABC, the sum of the distances from P to the sides is less than or equal to half of the sum of the distances from P to the vertices. It is named after Paul Erdős and Louis Mordell. Erdős (1935) posed the problem of proving the inequality; a proof was provided two years later by Mordell and D. F. Barrow. This solution was however not very elementary. Subsequent simpler proofs were then found by Kazarinoff (1957), Bankoff (1958), and Alsina & Nelsen (2007).
In geometry, the Steiner inellipse, midpoint inellipse, or midpoint ellipse of a triangle is the unique ellipse inscribed in the triangle and tangent to the sides at their midpoints. It is an example of an inellipse. By comparison the inscribed circle and Mandart inellipse of a triangle are other inconics that are tangent to the sides, but not at the midpoints unless the triangle is equilateral. The Steiner inellipse is attributed by Dörrie to Jakob Steiner, and a proof of its uniqueness is given by Dan Kalman.
In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°.
In Euclidean geometry, a bicentric quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral that has both an incircle and a circumcircle. The radii and centers of these circles are called inradius and circumradius, and incenter and circumcenter respectively. From the definition it follows that bicentric quadrilaterals have all the properties of both tangential quadrilaterals and cyclic quadrilaterals. Other names for these quadrilaterals are chord-tangent quadrilateral and inscribed and circumscribed quadrilateral. It has also rarely been called a double circle quadrilateral and double scribed quadrilateral.
An integer triangle or integral triangle is a triangle all of whose side lengths are integers. A rational triangle is one whose side lengths are rational numbers; any rational triangle can be rescaled by the lowest common denominator of the sides to obtain a similar integer triangle, so there is a close relationship between integer triangles and rational triangles.
In geometry, a fat object is an object in two or more dimensions, whose lengths in the different dimensions are similar. For example, a square is fat because its length and width are identical. A 2-by-1 rectangle is thinner than a square, but it is fat relative to a 10-by-1 rectangle. Similarly, a circle is fatter than a 1-by-10 ellipse and an equilateral triangle is fatter than a very obtuse triangle.
An acute triangle is a triangle with three acute angles. An obtuse triangle is a triangle with one obtuse angle and two acute angles. Since a triangle's angles must sum to 180° in Euclidean geometry, no Euclidean triangle can have more than one obtuse angle.
↑ Chakerian, G. D. "A Distorted View of Geometry." Ch. 7 in Mathematical Plums (R. Honsberger, editor). Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America, 1979: 147.
↑ Minda, D., and Phelps, S., "Triangles, ellipses, and cubic polynomials", American Mathematical Monthly 115, October 2008, 679–689: Theorem 4.1.
↑ L. Euler, "Solutio facilis problematum quorundam geometricorum difficillimorum", Novi Comm. Acad. Scie. Petropolitanae 11 (1765); reprinted in Opera Omnia, serie prima, vol. 26 (A. Speiser, ed.), n. 325, 139–157.
↑ Dao Thanh Oai, Nguyen Tien Dung, and Pham Ngoc Mai, "A strengthened version of the Erdős-Mordell inequality", Forum Geometricorum 16 (2016), pp. 317--321, Theorem 2 http://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2016volume16/FG201638.pdf
↑ Dan S ̧tefan Marinescu and Mihai Monea, "About a Strengthened Version of the Erdo ̋s-Mordell Inequality", Forum Geometricorum Volume 17 (2017), pp. 197–202, Corollary 7. http://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2017volume17/FG201723.pdf
1 2 Yurii, N. Maltsev and Anna S. Kuzmina, "An improvement of Birsan's inequalities for the sides of a triangle", Forum Geometricorum 16, 2016, pp. 81−84.
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