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Is there a way to draw a circle within a triangle without a compass? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by favrion@lemmy.world to c/math@lemmy.world

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[–] solrize@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This might be what you want:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poncelet%E2%80%93Steiner_theorem

[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Specifically this part:

it is naturally understood that circles and their arcs cannot be drawn without the compass

Some straight-line constructions, you might or might not need a compass to locate properly in order to draw them. But as the tools are usually defined for these kinds of constructions, actually drawing the circle without a compass is not possible.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Well. If you can find the center of the inscribed circle and its tangent points on the triangle, that might be what OP wanted.