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  2. Tangent lines to circles - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangent_lines_to_circles

    If = + is the distance from c 1 to c 2 we can normalize by =, =, = to simplify equation (1), resulting in the following system of equations: + =, + =; solve these to get two solutions (k = ±1) for the two external tangent lines: = = + = (+) Geometrically this corresponds to computing the angle formed by the tangent lines and the line of ...

  3. Method of normals - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_normals

    The method hinges on the observation that the radius of a circle is always normal to the circle itself. With this in mind Descartes would construct a circle that was tangent to a given curve. He could then use the radius at the point of intersection to find the slope of a normal line, and from this one can easily find the slope of a tangent line.

  4. Contact (mathematics) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(mathematics)

    A circle with 1st-order contact (tangent) A circle with 2nd-order contact (osculating) A circle with 3rd-order contact at a vertex of a curve. For each point S(t) on a smooth plane curve S, there is exactly one osculating circle, whose radius is the reciprocal of κ(t), the curvature of S at t.

  5. Thales's theorem - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thales's_theorem

    Thales's theorem can also be used to find the centre of a circle using an object with a right angle, such as a set square or rectangular sheet of paper larger than the circle. [7] The angle is placed anywhere on its circumference (figure 1). The intersections of the two sides with the circumference define a diameter (figure 2).

  6. Tangent - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangent

    Tangent to a curve. The red line is tangential to the curve at the point marked by a red dot. Tangent plane to a sphere. In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is, intuitively, the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point.

  7. Power of a point - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_a_point

    All tangent circles to the given circles can be found by varying line . Positions of the centers Circles tangent to two circles. If is the center and the radius of the circle, that is tangent to the given circles at the points ,, then:

  8. Osculating circle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osculating_circle

    The circle with center at Q and with radius R is called the osculating circle to the curve γ at the point P. If C is a regular space curve then the osculating circle is defined in a similar way, using the principal normal vector N. It lies in the osculating plane, the plane spanned by the tangent and principal normal vectors T and N at the ...

  9. Descartes' theorem - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes'_theorem

    Kissing circles. Given three mutually tangent circles (black), there are, in general, two possible answers (red) as to what radius a fourth tangent circle can have.In geometry, Descartes' theorem states that for every four kissing, or mutually tangent, circles, the radii of the circles satisfy a certain quadratic equation.