Inscribed Circle

As a part of this derivation, we got a formula for the radius of a circle drawn around a triangle. In this derivation, we will find a formula for a circle drawn inside a triangle.

Consider any triangle with any side lengths a, b and c, and draw a circle inside it so that it touches each side as in the picture below. A circle like this is called the inscribed circle of the triangle. Our goal is to find its radius r.

Let's split the triangle into 3 smaller triangles by connecting the corners to the center of the circle:

Because the radius r is perpendicular to the side with length a, the area of the green part is ar/2. Areas of the other parts are similarly br/2 and cr/2. Letting A denote the area of the whole triangle, we get A=ar2+br2+cr2=(a+b+c)r2. Multiplying both sides by 2 and dividing by a+b+c gives the following result.

Consider any triangle. Let a, b and c denote its side lengths, let A denote its area, and let r denote the radius of the inscribed circle. Then r=2Aa+b+c.