Triangle - Figures Inscribed in A Triangle

Figures Inscribed in A Triangle

As discussed above, every triangle has a unique inscribed circle (incircle) that is interior to the triangle and tangent to all three sides.

Every triangle has a unique Steiner inellipse which is interior to the triangle and tangent at the midpoints of the sides. Marden's theorem shows how to find the foci of this ellipse. This ellipse has the greatest area of any ellipse tangent to all three sides of the triangle.

For any ellipse inscribed in a triangle ABC, let the foci be P and Q. Then

Every triangle has three inscribed squares (squares in its interior such that all four of a square's vertices lie on a side of the triangle, so two of them lie on the same side and hence one side of the square coincides with part of a side of the triangle). However, in the case of a right triangle two of the squares coincide and have a vertex at the triangle's right angle, so a right triangle has only two distinct inscribed squares. Within a given triangle, a longer common side is associated with a smaller inscribed square. If an inscribed square has side of length q and the triangle has a side of length a, part of which side coincides with a side of the square, then q, a, and the triangle's area T are related according to

The largest possible ratio of the area of the inscribed square to the area of the triangle is 1/2, which occurs when a2 = 2T, q = a/2, and the altitude of the triangle from the base of length a is equal to a.