What is the easier way to find the

Destinee Bryan

Destinee Bryan

Answered question

2022-04-10

What is the easier way to find the circle given three points?
Given three points (x1,y1),(x2,y2), and (x3,y3), if
y2y1x2x1y3y2x3x2y1y3x1x3,
then there will be a circle passing through them. The general form of the circle is
x2+y2+ dx +ey+f=0.
By substituting x=xi and y=yi, there will be a system of equation in three variables, that is:
(x1y11x2y21x3y31)(def)=((x12+y12)(x22+y22)(x32+y32)).
As there are a lot of things going around, the solution is prone to errors. Maybe this solution also has an error.
Is there a better way to solve for the equation of the circle?

Answer & Explanation

umkhululiueyj

umkhululiueyj

Beginner2022-04-11Added 12 answers

Move the circle so that it passes through the origin (subtract a point from all three). The equation loses a coefficient,
x2+y2+ dx +ey=0
which is easier to solve. Then reverse-translate.
d2=|x12+y12y1x22+y22y2|2|x1y1x2y2|
-e2=x1x12+y12x2x22+y222x1y1x2y2
are the coordinates of the center in the moved position.

Terzago66cl

Terzago66cl

Beginner2022-04-12Added 8 answers

I prefer a different approach.
You know that the center of the circle is the intersection between any two of the three perpendicular bisectors.
Therefore, (xx1)2+(yy1)2=(xx2)2+(yy2)2   (1)
and (xx1)2+(yy1)2=(xx3)2+(yy3)2   (2)
Let f1(x)=(xx1)2(xx2)2.≈:≈ 1st degree polynomial
Let f2(x)=(xx1)2(xx3)2.≈:≈ 1st degree polynomial
Let g1(y)=(yy2)2(yy1)2.≈:≈ 1st degree polynomial
Let g2(y)=(yy3)2(yy1)2.≈:≈ 1st degree polynomial
You can express g2(y) as Ag1(y)+B, where A,B are fixed real numbers.
This implies that f2(x)=g2(y)=Ag1(y)+B=Af1(x)+B   (3)
Equation (3) above gives you an equation solely in x, that you can solve to determine the (x=x0) coordinate of the center of the circle. Once this is determined, you can compute y0 via g1(y0)=f1(x0).

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