A triangle has corners at (2,6), (4,7), and (1,5). What is the radius of the triangle's inscribed circle?

1 Answer
May 10, 2017

Simple. Find the centroid of the triangle and Measure the perpendicular distance from this point to any of the sides.

Explanation:

The centroid of the triangle can be found by the centroid formula:

x,y= x1+x2+x33,y1+y2+y33

On plugging values, we get:

x=73

y=6

equation of any one line can be found using the formula:

y - y1 = m(x - x1)

Where m=(y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1)

On plugging in values, we get:

y6=x22

2y12=x2

x2y10=0

The formula for perpendicular distance from a point to a line is:

d=|Ax+By+C|A2+B2

On plugging values, we get:

d=7310105

d=7.9cm

The radius of the circle is 7.9cm