Right kite

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A right kite with its circumcircle and incircle. The leftmost and rightmost vertices have right angles. Bicentric kite 001.svg
A right kite with its circumcircle and incircle. The leftmost and rightmost vertices have right angles.

In Euclidean geometry, a right kite is a kite (a quadrilateral whose four sides can be grouped into two pairs of equal-length sides that are adjacent to each other) that can be inscribed in a circle. [1] That is, it is a kite with a circumcircle (i.e., a cyclic kite). Thus the right kite is a convex quadrilateral and has two opposite right angles. [2] If there are exactly two right angles, each must be between sides of different lengths. All right kites are bicentric quadrilaterals (quadrilaterals with both a circumcircle and an incircle), since all kites have an incircle. One of the diagonals (the one that is a line of symmetry) divides the right kite into two right triangles and is also a diameter of the circumcircle.

Contents

In a tangential quadrilateral (one with an incircle), the four line segments between the center of the incircle and the points where it is tangent to the quadrilateral partition the quadrilateral into four right kites.

Special case

A special case of right kites are squares, where the diagonals have equal lengths, and the incircle and circumcircle are concentric.

Characterizations

A kite is a right kite if and only if it has a circumcircle (by definition). This is equivalent to its being a kite with two opposite right angles.

Metric formulas

Since a right kite can be divided into two right triangles, the following metric formulas easily follow from well known properties of right triangles. In a right kite ABCD where the opposite angles B and D are right angles, the other two angles can be calculated from

where a = AB = AD and b = BC = CD. The area of a right kite is

The diagonal AC that is a line of symmetry has the length

and, since the diagonals are perpendicular (so a right kite is an orthodiagonal quadrilateral with area ), the other diagonal BD has the length

The radius of the circumcircle is (according to the Pythagorean theorem)

and, since all kites are tangential quadrilaterals, the radius of the incircle is given by

where s is the semiperimeter.

The area is given in terms of the circumradius R and the inradius r as [3]

If we take the segments extending from the intersection of the diagonals to the vertices in clockwise order to be , ,, and , then,

This is a direct result of the geometric mean theorem.

Duality

The dual polygon to a right kite is an isosceles tangential trapezoid. [1]

Alternative definition

Sometimes a right kite is defined as a kite with at least one right angle. [4] If there is only one right angle, it must be between two sides of equal length; in this case, the formulas given above do not apply.

Related Research Articles

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Triangle Shape with three sides

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Kite (geometry) Quadrilateral symmetric across a diagonal

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Parallelogram Quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides

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Incircle and excircles of a triangle Circles tangent to all three sides of a triangle

In geometry, the incircle or inscribed circle of a triangle is the largest circle contained in the triangle; it touches the three sides. The center of the incircle is a triangle center called the triangle's incenter.

Rhombus Quadrilateral in which all sides have the same length

In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhombus is often called a 'diamond', after the diamonds suit in playing cards which resembles the projection of an octahedral diamond, or a lozenge (shape), though the former sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 60° angle, and the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.

Cyclic quadrilateral Quadrilateral whose vertices can all fall on a single circle

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.

Trapezoid Convex quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides

A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called, in American and Canadian English, a trapezoid. In British and other forms of English, a trapezoid is called a trapezium. The transposition of these two terms was a result of an error in Charles Hutton's mathematical dictionary.

Isosceles trapezoid Trapezoid symmetrical about an axis

In Euclidean geometry, an isosceles trapezoid is a convex quadrilateral with a line of symmetry bisecting one pair of opposite sides. It is a special case of a trapezoid. Alternatively, it can be defined as a trapezoid in which both legs and both base angles are of equal measure. Note that a non-rectangular parallelogram is not an isosceles trapezoid because of the second condition, or because it has no line of symmetry. In any isosceles trapezoid, two opposite sides are parallel, and the two other sides are of equal length. The diagonals are also of equal length. The base angles of an isosceles trapezoid are equal in measure.

In geometry, the semiperimeter of a polygon is half its perimeter. Although it has such a simple derivation from the perimeter, the semiperimeter appears frequently enough in formulas for triangles and other figures that it is given a separate name. When the semiperimeter occurs as part of a formula, it is typically denoted by the letter s.

Circumscribed circle Circle that passes through all the vertices of a polygon

In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius.

Tangential quadrilateral Polygon whose four sides all touch a circle

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.

Bicentric polygon

In geometry, a bicentric polygon is a tangential polygon which is also cyclic — that is, inscribed in an outer circle that passes through each vertex of the polygon. All triangles and all regular polygons are bicentric. On the other hand, a rectangle with unequal sides is not bicentric, because no circle can be tangent to all four sides.

Bicentric quadrilateral Type of shape

In Euclidean geometry, a bicentric quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral that has both an incircle and a circumcircle. The radii and center 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.

Orthodiagonal quadrilateral

In Euclidean geometry, an orthodiagonal quadrilateral is a quadrilateral in which the diagonals cross at right angles. In other words, it is a four-sided figure in which the line segments between non-adjacent vertices are orthogonal (perpendicular) to each other.

Ex-tangential quadrilateral

In Euclidean geometry, an ex-tangential quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral where the extensions of all four sides are tangent to a circle outside the quadrilateral. It has also been called an exscriptible quadrilateral. The circle is called its excircle, its radius the exradius and its center the excenter. The excenter lies at the intersection of six angle bisectors. These are the internal angle bisectors at two opposite vertex angles, the external angle bisectors at the other two vertex angles, and the external angle bisectors at the angles formed where the extensions of opposite sides intersect. The ex-tangential quadrilateral is closely related to the tangential quadrilateral.

Tangential trapezoid

In Euclidean geometry, a tangential trapezoid, also called a circumscribed trapezoid, is a trapezoid whose four sides are all tangent to a circle within the trapezoid: the incircle or inscribed circle. It is the special case of a tangential quadrilateral in which at least one pair of opposite sides are parallel. As for other trapezoids, the parallel sides are called the bases and the other two sides the legs. The legs can be equal, but they don't have to be.

Tangential polygon Convex polygon that contains an inscribed circle

In Euclidean geometry, a tangential polygon, also known as a circumscribed polygon, is a convex polygon that contains an inscribed circle. This is a circle that is tangent to each of the polygon's sides. The dual polygon of a tangential polygon is a cyclic polygon, which has a circumscribed circle passing through each of its vertices.

References

  1. 1 2 Michael de Villiers, Some Adventures in Euclidean Geometry, ISBN   978-0-557-10295-2, 2009, pp. 154, 206.
  2. De Villiers, Michael (1994), "The role and function of a hierarchical classification of quadrilaterals", For the Learning of Mathematics, 14 (1): 11–18, JSTOR   40248098
  3. Josefsson, Martin (2012), "Maximal Area of a Bicentric Quadrilateral" (PDF), Forum Geometricorum, 12: 237–241.
  4. 1728 Software Systems, Kite Calculator, accessed 8 October 2012