PRINCIPIA · THEOREM

Triangle incircle — existence and uniqueness

Dependencies: Three angle bisectors meet (incenter) (the three angle bisectors meet at II), Angle bisector ⇔ equidistant from sides (on the line \Rightarrow equidistant from the two sides), Tangent test (a radius through the touch point \wedge the radius \perp the line \Rightarrow tangent line).

Statement

Let ABC\triangle ABC be a non-degenerate triangle, and let II be its incenter (given by Three angle bisectors meet (incenter)). Let

r  :=  dist(I,BC)  =  dist(I,CA)  =  dist(I,AB).r \;:=\; \operatorname{dist}(I, BC) \;=\; \operatorname{dist}(I, CA) \;=\; \operatorname{dist}(I, AB).

Then the circle (I,r)\odot(I,\, r) centered at II with radius rr is tangent to all three sides ABAB, BCBC, CACA. This circle is called the incircle of ABC\triangle ABC, and the three contact points DBCD \in BC, ECAE \in CA, FABF \in AB are exactly the feet of the perpendiculars from II to the three sides.

The incircle \odot(I,\, r) of \triangle ABC: three equal-length radii ID = IE = IF = r are perpendicular to the sides at the contact points

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