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1 - Yellow Dragon 08
1 - Yellow Dragon 08
Centroid(G) Orthocentre (H) Circumcentre (O) In-centre (I) Ex-centres (E1, E2, E3)
(重心) (垂心) (外接圓心) (內接圓心) (外心)
This article aims to find the vector forms of five classical centres of a triangle. It is assumed that the reader has learned a
basic course of vector algebra. We use A , B, C to denote the position vectors OA, OB, OC of the three vertices of the
triangle. Similarly, we use X to denote the position vector OX of any point X. We use unbold italic A, B, C to denote the
angles of the triangle ABC and a, b, c the length of the sides opposite to the angles A, B, C respectively.
Figure 1
3. Some preliminary results : (Refer to Figure 2, 3 below)
Proof
We get around the problem a bit. We suppose OH OA OB OC and then show that H is the orthocenter.
Since O is the circum-centre, OA OB OC …. (2)
AH OH OA OA OB OC OA OB OC …. (3)
and BC OC OB
AH BC OB OC OC OB OC 2
OB
2
0 , , by (2)
AH BC , similarly BH CA, CH AB
H is the orthocenter.
If we can take the circum-centre (O) as origin and we simply write H = A + B + C
For simplicity, we take A, B, C to be acute angles. Same result can be got with obtuse angle. (note 1)
AH 2 R cos A, BH 2 R cos B, CH 2 R cos C …. (4)
Since AH , BH , CH are non-parallel, we can let
AH BH CH 0 , where , , are constants.
Note that WV // AH , VU // BH , UW // CH
4. Orthocentre (H)
Since from (5), OH OA tan A OH OB tan B OH OC tan C 0
A tan A B tan B C tan C
Solving, OH OA tan A OB tan B OC tan C or H …. (6)
tan A tan B tan C tan A tan B tan C
A a sec A B b sec B C c sec C
Reader may check similar result, H …. (7)
a sec A b sec B c sec C
The above results (6) and (7) are good even if O is not the cirum-centre, but any assigned origin.
R R R 2R 2R 2R
2 R1 sin 2 A, sin 2 B, sin 2C
sin 2 A sin 2 B sin 2C R1 R1 R1
Since OA OB OC 0 , therefore OA sin 2 A OB sin 2 B OC sin 2C 0
U = 180 – ( IB, IC ) = t + u
o
V = 180o – ( IA, IB ) = u + s
W = 180o – ( IC, IA ) = s + t
IA IB IC
By sine law on UVW, 2 R1 ,
sin U sin V sin W
Note :
(1) For more detailed results and discussions, please refer to my site: http://www.qc.edu.hk/math/index.htm .
(2) The author would like to thank Ms. Chan Lap-lin, Head of the Department of Mathematics at Queen's College, for her careful
proof-reading,