Interactive · 4 questions
Here I'm going to explain how to find the lengths to the tangency points to the incircle in a triangle . Here's a diagram for reference:
More specifically, we will find the lengths . Let the lengths of be (just like how we do it normally).
As you see in the diagram, the incircle is tangent to all three sides of the triangle.
What can we say about the lengths of and ? (Remember that they are both tangents to the incircle!)
Similarly, and . Let . We're now going to find a way to solve for .
Remembering that the side lengths of the triangle are , write an expression for the value of in terms of . (Use no spaces, order variables alphabetically)
Ok, now write expressions for and .
So now we have 3 variables () but now we have three equations: . This means that we can solve for .
Which of the following is an expression for ?
Here's a cool way to solve the system of equations above. First add all three equations together. This gives us . But !. So .
Similarly, . In fact, if we define to be the semiperimeter (half the perimeter), then . This way, we can actually rewrite as .
So this is how you find the lengths in an incircle. :)
Here's a related exercise: https://www.expii.com/exercise/1882/