A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted .
A right triangle or right-angled triangle (British), or more formally an orthogonal triangle, formerly called a rectangled triangle, is a triangle in which one angle is a right angle, i.e., in which two sides are perpendicular. The relation between the sides and other angles of the right triangle is the basis for trigonometry.
Angle trisection is a classical problem of straightedge and compass construction of ancient Greek mathematics. It concerns construction of an angle equal to one third of a given arbitrary angle, using only two tools: an unmarked straightedge and a compass.
In geometry, an altitude of a triangle is a line segment through a vertex and perpendicular to a line containing the side opposite the vertex. This line containing the opposite side is called the extended base of the altitude. The intersection of the extended base and the altitude is called the foot of the altitude. The length of the altitude, often simply called "the altitude", is the distance between the extended base and the vertex. The process of drawing the altitude from the vertex to the foot is known as dropping the altitude at that vertex. It is a special case of orthogonal projection.
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 geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length. In the familiar Euclidean geometry, an equilateral triangle is also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each other and are each 60°. It is also a regular polygon, so it is also referred to as a regular triangle.
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 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 geometry, the isogonal conjugate of a point P with respect to a triangle △ABC is constructed by reflecting the lines PA, PB, PC about the angle bisectors of A, B, C respectively. These three reflected lines concur at the isogonal conjugate of P. This is a direct result of the trigonometric form of Ceva's theorem.
In geometry, lines in a plane or higher-dimensional space are concurrent if they intersect at a single point. They are in contrast to parallel lines.
A special right triangle is a right triangle with some regular feature that makes calculations on the triangle easier, or for which simple formulas exist. For example, a right triangle may have angles that form simple relationships, such as 45°–45°–90°. This is called an "angle-based" right triangle. A "side-based" right triangle is one in which the lengths of the sides form ratios of whole numbers, such as 3 : 4 : 5, or of other special numbers such as the golden ratio. Knowing the relationships of the angles or ratios of sides of these special right triangles allows one to quickly calculate various lengths in geometric problems without resorting to more advanced methods.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to trigonometry:
Early study of triangles can be traced to the 2nd millennium BC, in Egyptian mathematics and Babylonian mathematics. Trigonometry was also prevalent in Kushite mathematics. Systematic study of trigonometric functions began in Hellenistic mathematics, reaching India as part of Hellenistic astronomy. In Indian astronomy, the study of trigonometric functions flourished in the Gupta period, especially due to Aryabhata, who discovered the sine function. During the Middle Ages, the study of trigonometry continued in Islamic mathematics, by mathematicians such as Al-Khwarizmi and Abu al-Wafa. It became an independent discipline in the Islamic world, where all six trigonometric functions were known. Translations of Arabic and Greek texts led to trigonometry being adopted as a subject in the Latin West beginning in the Renaissance with Regiomontanus. The development of modern trigonometry shifted during the western Age of Enlightenment, beginning with 17th-century mathematics and reaching its modern form with Leonhard Euler (1748).
In geometry, Brocard points are special points within a triangle. They are named after Henri Brocard (1845–1922), a French mathematician.
In geometry, the Nagel point is a triangle center, one of the points associated with a given triangle whose definition does not depend on the placement or scale of the triangle. It is the point of concurrency of all three of the triangle's splitters.
In geometry, a triangle center or triangle centre is a point in the triangle's plane that is in some sense in the middle of the triangle. For example, the centroid, circumcenter, incenter and orthocenter were familiar to the ancient Greeks, and can be obtained by simple constructions.
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 mathematics, modern triangle geometry, or new triangle geometry, is the body of knowledge relating to the properties of a triangle discovered and developed roughly since the beginning of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Triangles and their properties were the subject of investigation since at least the time of Euclid. In fact, Euclid's Elements contains description of the four special points – centroid, incenter, circumcenter and orthocenter - associated with a triangle. Even though Pascal and Ceva in the seventeenth century, Euler in the eighteenth century and Feuerbach in the nineteenth century and many other mathematicians had made important discoveries regarding the properties of the triangle, it was the publication in 1873 of a paper by Emile Lemoine (1840–1912) with the title "On a remarkable point of the triangle" that was considered to have, according to Nathan Altschiller-Court, "laid the foundations...of the modern geometry of the triangle as a whole." The American Mathematical Monthly, in which much of Lemoine's work is published, declared that "To none of these [geometers] more than Émile-Michel-Hyacinthe Lemoine is due the honor of starting this movement of modern triangle geometry". The publication of this paper caused a remarkable upsurge of interest in investigating the properties of the triangle during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century. A hundred-page article on triangle geometry in Klein's Encyclopedia of Mathematical Sciences published in 1914 bears witness to this upsurge of interest in triangle geometry.