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- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!pavo.csi.cam.ac.uk!gm115
- From: gm115@cus.cam.ac.uk (Gabor Megyesi)
- Newsgroups: sci.math
- Subject: Re: Help: inscribed circle of three circles
- Message-ID: <1992Sep8.195518.15080@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
- Date: 8 Sep 92 19:55:18 GMT
- References: <Sep.8.09.46.26.1992.3259@yoko.rutgers.edu>
- Sender: news@infodev.cam.ac.uk (USENET news)
- Organization: U of Cambridge, England
- Lines: 12
- Nntp-Posting-Host: apus.cus.cam.ac.uk
-
- The classical geometric solution is the following. By increasing or
- decreasing the radii by the same amount, you can assume that two circles
- intersect, except when there is obviously no solution, i.e., the first
- circle contains the second, the second contains the third. Inverting them
- with respect to the point of intersection, these two circles get mapped
- into straight lines, and then the problem is reduced to solving a quadratic
- equation. It has a nice geometric solution too, I just cannot do it off the
- top of my head. Do everything backwards, and then you get what you want. It
- is going to be a horrible mess if you write it out in explicit formulae,
- but you cannot expect anything better with so many parameters.
-
- Gabor
-