I'm taking a course at teaching and we have some geometry questions. Among the questions there was o

Payton Salazar

Payton Salazar

Answered question

2022-06-04

I'm taking a course at teaching and we have some geometry questions. Among the questions there was one I couldn't solve.

I'm trying to prove that angle bisectors in a triangle intersect at a single point, but I need to show it analytically, i.e using line equations and distance between points. I'm familiar with proofs using geometry and vectors, but couldn't manage to show analytically. I can't use the formula of angle between lines or distance of point from a given line.

Things I've tried:

1. angle bisector theorem.
2. Writing equations of sides as A x + B y + C = 0 and then creating the equation of angle bisector - quite messy and I believe there is a lot easier way.

Thanks!

Answer & Explanation

Halle Mckee

Halle Mckee

Beginner2022-06-05Added 4 answers

Without loss of generality, we can set: A = ( 0 , 0 ), B = ( 1 , 0 ) and C = ( a , b ), with b > 0. By the tangent bisection formula one gets then the slopes m and m of the angle bisectors through A and B:
m = 1 a / a 2 + b 2 1 + a / a 2 + b 2 , m = 1 ( 1 a ) / ( 1 a ) 2 + b 2 1 + ( 1 a ) / ( 1 a ) 2 + b 2 .
You can now find the equations of the two lines and their intersection G. It remains to show that C G is the bisector of angle C. I think the simplest way to do that is finding the intersection H between line C G and the x axis, and checking that A H / B H = A C / B C.

Do you have a similar question?

Recalculate according to your conditions!

New Questions in Elementary geometry

Ask your question.
Get an expert answer.

Let our experts help you. Answer in as fast as 15 minutes.

Didn't find what you were looking for?