Forum Geometricorum

Volume 10 (2010) 3540.

FORUM GEOM
ISSN 1534-1178

Some Triangle Centers Associated with the Circles

Tangent to the Excircles
Boris Odehnal

Abstract. We study those tritangent circles of the excircles of a triangle which

enclose exactly one excircle and touch the two others from the outside. It turns
out that these three circles share exactly the Spieker point. Moreover we show
that these circles give rise to some triangles which are in perspective with the
base triangle. The respective perspectors turn out to be new polynomial triangle
centers.

1. Introduction
Let T := ABC be a triangle in the Euclidean plane, and a , b , c its excircles,
lying opposite to A, B, C respectively, with centers Ia , Ib , Ic and radii ra , rb , rc .
There are eight circles tangent to all three excircles: the side lines of T (considered
as circles with innite radius), the Feuerbach circle (see [2, 4]), the so-called Apollonius circle (enclosing all the three excircles (see for example [3, 6, 9]), and three
remaining circles which will in the following be denoted by Ka , Kb , Kc . The circle
Ka is tangent to a and externally to b and c ; similarly for Kb and Kc . The radii
of these circles are computed in [1]. These circles have the Spieker center X10 as
a common point. In this note we study these circles in more details, and show that
the triangle of contact points Ka,a Kb,b Kc,c is perspective with T. Surprisingly, the
triangle Ma Mb Mc of the centers these circles is also perspective with T.
2. Main results
The problem of constructing the circles tangent to three given circles is well
studied. Applying the ideas of J. D. Gergonne [5] to the three excircles we see
that the construction of the circles Ka etc can be accomplished simply by a ruler.
Let Ka,b be the contact point of circle a with Kb , and analogously dene the
remaining eight contact points. The contact points Ka,a , Kb,a , Kc,a are the intersections of the excircles a , b , c with the lines joining their contact points with
the sideline BC to the radical center radical center of the three excircles, namely,
the Spieker point
X10 = (b + c : c + a : a + b)
Publication Date: April 20, 2010. Communicating Editor: Paul Yiu.

36

B. Odehnal

in homogeneous barycentric coordinates (see for example [8]). The circle Ka is

the circle containing these points (see Figure 1). The other two circle Kb and Kc
can be analogously constructed.

Cb

Ib
Bc
A

Ic
Cc
X10

Bb
Kb,a

Kc,a
B

Ac

Aa

Ab

Ba

Ca

Ia

Ka,a

Figure 1. The circle Ka

Let s := 1 (a + b = c) be the semiperimeter. The contact points of the excircles

2
with the sidelines are the points

Aa = (0 : s b : s c), Ba = ((s b) : 0 : s), Ca = ((s c) : s : 0);

Ab = (0 : (s a) : s), Bb = (s a : 0 : s c), Cb = (s : (s c) : 0);
Ac = (0 : c : (s a)), Bc = (s : 0 : (s b)), Cc = (s a : s b : 0).
A conic is be represented by an equation in the form xT M x = 0, where xT =
(x0 x1 x2 ) is the vector collecting the homogeneous barycentric coordinates of a

Some triangle centers associated with the circles tangent to the excircles

Mb

Kc,c
Kc,b A

Ib

37

Kb,b

Kb,c

Ic
Mc

X10

Kb,a

Kc,a
B

C
Ka,b
Ka,c

Ma

Ia

Ka,a

Figure 2.

point X, and M is a symmetric 3 3-matrix. For the excircles, these matrices are

s2
s(s c)
s(s b)
(s b)(s c) ,
(s c)2
Ma = s(s c)
s(s b) (s b)(s c)
(s b)2

(s c)2
s(s c) (s a)(s c)
,
s(s a)
s(s c)
s2
Mb =
2
(s a)(s c) s(s a)
(s a)

2
(s a)(s b) s(s b)
(s b)
(s a)2
s(s a) .
Mc = (s a)(s b)
s(s b)
s(s a)
s2
It is elementary to verify that the homogeneous barycentrics of the contact points
are given by:

38

B. Odehnal

Ka,a
Ka,b
Ka,c
Kb,a
Kb,b
Kb,c
Kc,a
Kc,b
Kc,c

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

((b + c)2 (s b)(s c) : c2 s(s b) : b2 s(s c)),

(c2 s(s b) : (c + a)2 (s b)(s c) : (as + bc)2 ),
(b2 s(s c) : (as + bc)2 : (a + b)2 (s b)(s c));
((b + c)2 (s a)(s c) : c2 s(s a) : (bs + ac)2 ),
(c2 s(s a) : (c + a)2 (s a)(s c) : a2 s(s c)),
((bs + ac)2 : a2 s(s c) : (a + b)2 (s a)(s c));
((b + c)2 (s a)(s b) : (cs + ab)2 : b2 s(s a)),
((cs + ab)2 : (c + a)2 (s a)(s c) : a2 s(s b)),
(b2 s(s a) : a2 s(s b) : (a + b)2 (s a)(s b)).

(1)

Theorem 1.
The triangle Ka,a Kb,c Kc,c of contact points is perspective with T at a point with
homogeneous barycentric coordinates
sa sb sc
: 2 : 2
a2
b
c

(2)

Proof. The coordinates of Ka,a , Kb,b , Kc,c can be rewritten as

2

Ka,a =

(sb)(sc)
(b+c) b2 c2 s
:

Kb,b =

sa
a2
sa
a2

Kc,c =

:
:

sb sc
: c2
b2
(c+a)2 (sa)(sc) sc

: c2
c2 a2 s
(a+b)2 (sa)(sb)
sb
:
b2
a 2 b2 s

,
,

(3)

From these, it is clear that the lines AKa,a , BKb,b , CKc,c meet in the point
given in (2).
Remark. The triangle center PK is not listed in [7].
Theorem 2.
The lines AKa,a , BKa,b , and CKa,c are concurrent.
Proof. The coordinates of the points Ka,a , Ka,b , Ka,c can be rewritten in the form
Ka,a =
Ka,b =
Ka,c =

(sb)(sc)
(b+c) b2 c2 s
:

s(sb)(sc) :
(as+bc)2
s(sb)(sc) :
(as+bc)2

sb
: sc ) ,
b2
c2
(c+a)2 (sb)(sc)2
: sc
c2 (as+b2 )2
c2
sb (a+b)2 (sb)2 (sc)
:
b2
b2 (as+bc)2

,
.

From these, the lines AKa,a , BKa,b , and CKa,c intersect at the point

s(s b)(s c) s b s c
:
:
(as + bc)2
b2
c2

Let Mi be the center of the circle Ki .

(4)

Some triangle centers associated with the circles tangent to the excircles

39

Theorem 3.
The triangle M1 M2 M3 is perspective with T at the point
1
a5 a4 (b + c) + a3 (b c)2 + a2 (b + c)(b2 + c2 ) + 2abc(b2 + bc + c2 ) + 2(b + c)b2 c2
: :

Mb

Kc,c
Kc,b A

Ib

Kb,b

Kb,c

Ic
Mc

X10
Kc,a

Kb,a

PM
B

Ka,b

Ka,c

Ma

Ia

Ka,a

Figure 3.

Proof. The center of the circle Ka is the point

Ma = 2a4 (b + c) a3 (4b2 + 4bc + 3c2 ) + a2 (b + c)(b2 + c2 ) (b + c a)(b2 c2 )2
: c5 c4 (a + b) + c3 (a b)2 + c2 (a + b)(a2 + b2 ) + 2abc(a2 + ab + b2 ) + 2a2 b2 (a + b)
: b5 b4 (c + a) + b3 (c a)2 + b2 (c + a)(c2 + a2 ) + 2abc(c2 + ca + a2 ) + 2c2 a2 (c + a).

40

B. Odehnal

Similarly, the coordinates of Mb and Mc can be written down. From these, the
perspectivity of T and Ma Mb Mc follows, with the perspector given above.
References
[1] A. Aeppli, Das Taktionsproblem von Apollonius angewandt auf die vier Ber hrungskreise eines
u
Dreiecks, Elem. Math., 13 (1958) 2530.
[2] C. B. Boyer, A History of Mathematics, J. Wiley, New York, 1968.
[3] N. Dergiades and J. C. Salazaar, Some triangle centers associated with the tritangent circles,
Forum Geom., 9 (2009) 259270.
[4] K. W. Feuerbach, Eigenschaften einiger merkw rdigen Punkte des geradlinigen Dreiecks und
u
mehrerer durch sie bestimmten Figuren (PhD thesis), Riegel und Wiener, N rnberg, 1822.
u
[5] J. D. Gergonne, Recherche du cercle qui en touche trois autres sur une sph` re, Ann. math. pures
e
appl., 4 (18131814) 349359.
[6] D. Grinberg and P. Yiu, The Apollonius circle as a Tucker circle, Forum Geom., 2 (2002) 175
182.
[7] C. Kimberling, Encyclopedia of Triangle Centers, available at:
http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/encyclopedia/ETC.html.
[8] C. Kimberling, Triangle centers and central triangles, Congressus numerantium, 128 (1998)
1295.
[9] M. R. Stevanovi , The Apollonius circle and related triangle centers, Forum Geom., 3 (2003)
c
187195.
Boris Odehnal: Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Discrete Mathematics and Geometry, Wiedner Hauptstrae 8-10, A-1040 Wien, Austria
E-mail address: boris@geometrie.tuwien.ac.at