What are the points of concurrency in a triangle and what is mathematically special about each of them?
The centroid is the point of concurrency (intersection) of the three medians of a triangle. A median is a segment joining a vertex of a triangle with the midpoint of the opposite side.
An orthocenter is the point of concurrency of the three altitudes of a triangle. An altitude is the perpendicular line drawn from a vertex to the opposite side.
An incenter is the point of concurrency of the three angle bisectors of a triangle. An angle bisector is the ray which bisects an angle, or divides the angle into two congruent angles.
A circumcenter is the point of concurrency of the three perpendicular bisectors of a triangle. A perpendicular bisector is a segment which bisects a segment and forms right angles.
To see how these points of concurrency are constructed, please watch my short Screencast video.
Now that you have seen how to construct a triangle’s points of concurrency using geometry, how could you use coordinate geometry and algebra to identify the points of concurrency?
Given points A(10,7) B(10,1) and C(2,1), find the coordinates of the following:
- centroid
- orthocenter
- incenter
- circumcenter
Check your answers using this handy Point of Concurrency web calculator.