A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners

or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is
denoted ABC.

In Euclidean geometry any three non-collinear points determine a unique triangle and a unique plane (i.e.
a two-dimensional Euclidean space).

Types of triangles

Euler diagram of types of triangles, using the definition that isosceles triangles have at least 2 equal sides, i.e. equilateral
triangles are isosceles.

[edit]By relative lengths of sides

Triangles can be classified according to the relative lengths of their sides:

In an equilateral triangle all sides have the same length. An equilateral triangle is also a regular
[1]
polygon with all angles measuring 60.
[2][3]
In an isosceles triangle, two sides are equal in length. An isosceles triangle also has two angles
of the same measure; namely, the angles opposite to the two sides of the same length; this fact is the
content of the Isosceles triangle theorem. Some mathematicians define an isosceles triangle to have
exactly two equal sides, whereas others define an isosceles triangle as one with at least two equal
[3]
sides. The latter definition would make all equilateral triangles isosceles triangles. The 45-45-90
Right Triangle, which appears in the Tetrakis square tiling, is isosceles.
[4]
In a scalene triangle, all sides are unequal. The three angles are also all different in measure.
Some (but not all) scalene triangles are also right triangles.

.
Equilateral Isosceles Scalene
In diagrams representing triangles (and other geometric figures), "tick" marks along the sides are used to
denote sides of equal lengths-- the equilateral triangle has tick marks on all 3 sides, the isosceles on 2
sides. The scalene has single, double, and triple tick marks, indicating that no sides are equal. Similarly,
arcs on the inside of the vertices are used to indicate equal angles. The equilateral triangle indicates all 3
angles are equal; the isosceles shows 2 identical angles. The scalene indicates by 1, 2, and 3 arcs that
no angles are equal.

By internal angles
Triangles can also be classified according to their internal angles, measured here in degrees.

A right triangle (or right-angled triangle, formerly called a rectangled triangle) has one of its
interior angles measuring 90 (a right angle). The side opposite to the right angle is thehypotenuse; it
is the longest side of the right triangle. The other two sides are called
[5]
the legs or catheti (singular: cathetus) of the triangle. Right triangles obey the Pythagorean
theorem: the sum of the squares of the lengths of the two legs is equal to the square of the length of
2 2 2
the hypotenuse: a + b = c , where a and b are the lengths of the legs and c is the length of the
hypotenuse. Special right triangles are right triangles with additional properties that make calculations
2 2 2
involving them easier. One of the two most famous is the 3-4-5 right triangle, where 3 + 4 =5 . In
this situation, 3, 4, and 5 are a Pythagorean Triple. The other one is an isosceles triangle that has 2
angles that each measure 45 degrees.
Triangles that do not have an angle that measures 90 are called oblique triangles.

A triangle that has all interior angles measuring less than 90 is an acute triangle or acute-angled
triangle.

A triangle that has one angle that measures more than 90 is an obtuse triangle or obtuse-angled
triangle.

A "triangle" with an interior angle of 180 (and collinear vertices) is degenerate.

A triangle that has two angles with the same measure also has two sides with the same length, and
therefore it is an isosceles triangle. It follows that in a triangle where all angles have the same measure,
all three sides have the same length, and such a triangle is therefore equilateral.
 Right Obtuse Acute

Oblique
Basic facts
Triangles are assumed to be two-dimensional plane figures, unless the context provides otherwise
(see Non-planar triangles, below). In rigorous treatments, a triangle is therefore called a 2-simplex(see
also Polytope). Elementary facts about triangles were presented by Euclid in books 14 of his Elements,
around 300 BC.

A triangle, showing exterior angle d

The measures of the interior angles of the triangle always add up to 180 degrees (same color to point out they are equal).

[6]
The measures of the interior angles of a triangle in Euclidean space always add up to 180 degrees. This
allows determination of the measure of the third angle of any triangle given the measure of two angles.
An exterior angle of a triangle is an angle that is a linear pair (and hencesupplementary) to an interior
angle. The measure of an exterior angle of a triangle is equal to the sum of the measures of the two
interior angles that are not adjacent to it; this is the exterior angle theorem. The sum of the measures of
[7]
the three exterior angles (one for each vertex) of any triangle is 360 degrees.

The sum of the lengths of any two sides of a triangle always exceeds the length of the third side, a
principle known as the triangle inequality. Since the vertices of a triangle are assumed to be non-collinear,
it is not possible for the sum of the length of two sides be equal to the length of the third side.

Two triangles are said to be similar if every angle of one triangle has the same measure as the
corresponding angle in the other triangle. The corresponding sides of similar triangles have lengths that
are in the same proportion, and this property is also sufficient to establish similarity.

A few basic theorems about similar triangles:

If two corresponding internal angles of two triangles have the same measure, the triangles are similar.
If two corresponding sides of two triangles are in proportion, and their included angles have the same
measure, then the triangles are similar. (The included angle for any two sides of a polygon is the
internal angle between those two sides.)
[8]
If three corresponding sides of two triangles are in proportion, then the triangles are similar.
[9]
Two triangles that are congruent have exactly the same size and shape: all pairs of corresponding
interior angles are equal in measure, and all pairs of corresponding sides have the same length. (This is a
total of six equalities, but three are often sufficient to prove congruence.)

Some sufficient conditions for a pair of triangles to be congruent are:

SAS Postulate: Two sides in a triangle have the same length as two sides in the other triangle, and
the included angles have the same measure.
ASA: Two interior angles and the included side in a triangle have the same measure and length,
respectively, as those in the other triangle. (The included side for a pair of angles is the side that is
common to them.)
SSS: Each side of a triangle has the same length as a corresponding side of the other triangle.
AAS: Two angles and a corresponding (non-included) side in a triangle have the same measure and
length, respectively, as those in the other triangle.
Hypotenuse-Leg (HL) Theorem: The hypotenuse and a leg in a right triangle have the same length as
those in another right triangle. This is also called RHS (right-angle, hypotenuse, side).
Hypotenuse-Angle Theorem: The hypotenuse and an acute angle in one right triangle have the same
length and measure, respectively, as those in the other right triangle. This is just a particular case of
the AAS theorem.

An important case:
 Side-Side-Angle (or Angle-Side-Side) condition: If two sides and a corresponding non-included angle
of a triangle have the same length and measure, respectively, as those in another triangle, then this
is not sufficient to prove congruence; but if the angle given is opposite to the longer side of the two
sides, then the triangles are congruent. The Hypotenuse-Leg Theorem is a particular case of this
criterion. The Side-Side-Angle condition does not by itself guarantee that the triangles are congruent
because one triangle could be obtuse-angled and the other acute-angled.

Using right triangles and the concept of similarity, the trigonometric functions sine and cosine can be
defined. These are functions of an angle which are investigated in trigonometry.

The Pythagorean theorem

A central theorem is the Pythagorean theorem, which states in any right triangle, the square of the length
of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the two other sides. If the hypotenuse
has length c, and the legs have lengths a and b, then the theorem states that

The converse is true: if the lengths of the sides of a triangle satisfy the above equation, then the
triangle has a right angle opposite side c.

Some other facts about right triangles:

The acute angles of a right triangle are complementary.

If the legs of a right triangle have the same length, then the angles opposite those legs
have the same measure. Since these angles are complementary, it follows that each
measures 45 degrees. By the Pythagorean theorem, the length of the hypotenuse is the
length of a leg times 2.
 In a right triangle with acute angles measuring 30 and 60 degrees, the hypotenuse is twice
the length of the shorter side, and the longer side is equal to the length of the shorter side
times 3 :

For all triangles, angles and sides are related by the law of cosines and law of sines (also
called the cosine rule and sine rule).

Points, lines, and circles associated with a triangle

There are hundreds of different constructions that find a special point associated with (and often inside) a
triangle, satisfying some unique property: see the references section for a catalogue of them. Often they
are constructed by finding three lines associated in a symmetrical way with the three sides (or vertices)
and then proving that the three lines meet in a single point: an important tool for proving the existence of
these is Ceva's theorem, which gives a criterion for determining when three such lines are concurrent.
Similarly, lines associated with a triangle are often constructed by proving that three symmetrically
constructed points are collinear: here Menelaus' theorem gives a useful general criterion. In this section
just a few of the most commonly encountered constructions are explained.

The circumcenter is the center of a circle passing through the three vertices of the triangle.

A perpendicular bisector of a side of a triangle is a straight line passing through the midpoint of the side
and being perpendicular to it, i.e. forming a right angle with it. The three perpendicular bisectors meet in a
single point, the triangle's circumcenter; this point is the center of the circumcircle, the circlepassing
through all three vertices. The diameter of this circle, called the circumdiameter, can be found from the
law of sines stated above. The circumcircle's radius is called the circumradius.
Thales' theorem implies that if the circumcenter is located on one side of the triangle, then the opposite
angle is a right one. If the circumcenter is located inside the triangle, then the triangle is acute; if the
circumcenter is located outside the triangle, then the triangle is obtuse.

The intersection of the altitudes is theorthocenter.

An altitude of a triangle is a straight line through a vertex and perpendicular to (i.e. forming a right angle
with) the opposite side. This opposite side is called the base of the altitude, and the point where the
altitude intersects the base (or its extension) is called the foot of the altitude. The length of the altitude is
the distance between the base and the vertex. The three altitudes intersect in a single point, called
the orthocenter of the triangle. The orthocenter lies inside the triangle if and only if the triangle is acute.

The intersection of the angle bisectors is the center of the incircle.

An angle bisector of a triangle is a straight line through a vertex which cuts the corresponding angle in
half. The three angle bisectors intersect in a single point, the incenter, the center of the triangle's incircle.
The incircle is the circle which lies inside the triangle and touches all three sides. Its radius is called
the inradius. There are three other important circles, the excircles; they lie outside the triangle and touch
one side as well as the extensions of the other two. The centers of the in- and excircles form
an orthocentric system.
The intersection of the medians is thecentroid.

A median of a triangle is a straight line through a vertex and the midpoint of the opposite side, and divides
the triangle into two equal areas. The three medians intersect in a single point, the triangle's centroid or
geometric barycenter. The centroid of a rigid triangular object (cut out of a thin sheet of uniform density) is
also its center of mass: the object can be balanced on its centroid in a uniform gravitational field. The
centroid cuts every median in the ratio 2:1, i.e. the distance between a vertex and the centroid is twice the
distance between the centroid and the midpoint of the opposite side.

Nine-point circle demonstrates a symmetry where six points lie on the edge of the triangle.

The midpoints of the three sides and the feet of the three altitudes all lie on a single circle, the
triangle's nine-point circle. The remaining three points for which it is named are the midpoints of the
portion of altitude between the vertices and the orthocenter. The radius of the nine-point circle is half that
of the circumcircle. It touches the incircle (at the Feuerbach point) and the three excircles.
Euler's line is a straight line through the centroid (orange), orthocenter (blue), circumcenter (green) and center of the nine-
point circle (red).

The centroid (yellow), orthocenter (blue), circumcenter (green) and center of the nine-point circle (red
point) all lie on a single line, known as Euler's line (red line). The center of the nine-point circle lies at the
midpoint between the orthocenter and the circumcenter, and the distance between the centroid and the
circumcenter is half that between the centroid and the orthocenter.

The center of the incircle is not in general located on Euler's line.

If one reflects a median at the angle bisector that passes through the same vertex, one obtains
a symmedian. The three symmedians intersect in a single point, the symmedian point of the triangle.

Computing the area of a triangle

The area of a triangle can be demonstrated as half of the area of a paralellogram which has the same base length and
height.

Calculating the area of a triangle is an elementary problem encountered often in many different situations.
The best known and simplest formula is:

where b is the length of the base of the triangle, and h is the height or altitude of the triangle. The
term 'base' denotes any side, and 'height' denotes the length of a perpendicular from the vertex
opposite the side onto the line containing the side itself. In 499 CE Aryabhata, a
 greatmathematician-astronomer from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy,
[10]
used this method in the Aryabhatiya (section 2.6) .

Although simple, this formula is only useful if the height can be readily found. For example, the
surveyor of a triangular field measures the length of each side, and can find the area from his results
without having to construct a 'height'. Various methods may be used in practice, depending on what
is known about the triangle. The following is a selection of frequently used formulae for the area of a
[11]
triangle.

Using vectors
The area of a parallelogram embedded in a three-dimensional Euclidean space can be calculated
using vectors. Let vectors AB and AC point respectively from A to B and from A to C. The area of
parallelogram ABDC is then

which is the magnitude of the cross product of vectors AB and AC. The area of triangle ABC is half
of this,

The area of triangle ABC can also be expressed in terms of dot products as follows:

In two-dimensional Euclidean space, expressing vector AB as a free vector in Cartesian

space equal to (x1,y1) and AC as (x2,y2), this can be rewritten as:

Applying trigonometry to find the altitude h.

[edit]Using trigonometry
The height of a triangle can be found through the application of trigonometry.
Knowing SAS: Using the labels in the image on the left, the altitude is h = a sin .
Substituting this in the formula Area = bh derived above, the area of the triangle
can be expressed as:

(where is the interior angle at A, is the interior angle at B, is the interior

angle at C and c is the line AB).

Furthermore, since sin = sin ( - ) = sin ( + ), and similarly for the other
two angles:

Knowing AAS:

and analogously if the known side is a or c.

[12]
Knowing ASA:

and analogously if the known side is b or c.

[edit]Using coordinates
If vertex A is located at the origin (0, 0) of a Cartesian
coordinate system and the coordinates of the other two
vertices are given by B = (xB, yB) and C = (xC, yC), then the
area can be computed as times the absolute value of
the determinant

For three general vertices, the equation is:

 In three dimensions, the area of a general
triangle {A = (xA, yA, zA), B = (xB, yB, zB) and
C = (xC, yC, zC)} is the Pythagorean sum of
the areas of the respective projections on the
three principal planes (i.e. x = 0, y = 0 and z =
0):

Using line integrals

The area within any closed curve, such as a triangle, is given by the line integral around the curve of the
algebraic or signed distance of a point on the curve from an arbitrary oriented straight line L. Points to the
right of L as oriented are taken to be at negative distance from L, while the weight for the integral is taken
to be the component of arc length parallel to L rather than arc length itself.

This method is well suited to computation of the area of an arbitrary polygon. Taking L to be the x-axis,
the line integral between consecutive vertices (xi,yi) and (xi+1,yi+1) is given by the base times the mean
height, namely (xi+1 xi)(yi + yi+1)/2. The sign of the area is an overall indicator of the direction of traversal,
with negative area indicating counterclockwise traversal. The area of a triangle then falls out as the case
of a polygon with three sides.

While the line integral method has in common with other coordinate-based methods the arbitrary choice
of a coordinate system, unlike the others it makes no arbitrary choice of vertex of the triangle as origin or
of side as base. Furthermore the choice of coordinate system defined by L commits to only two degrees
of freedom rather than the usual three, since the weight is a local distance (e.g.xi+1 xi in the above)
whence the method does not require choosing an axis normal to L.

When working in polar coordinates it is not necessary to convert to cartesian coordinates to use line
integration, since the line integral between consecutive vertices (ri,i) and (ri+1,i+1) of a polygon is given
directly by riri+1sin(i+1 i)/2. This is valid for all values of , with some decrease in numerical accuracy
when || is many orders of magnitude greater than . With this formulation negative area indicates
clockwise traversal, which should be kept in mind when mixing polar and cartesian coordinates. Just as
the choice of y-axis (x = 0) is immaterial for line integration in cartesian coordinates, so is the choice of
zero heading ( = 0) immaterial here
Using Heron's formula
The shape of the triangle is determined by the lengths of the sides alone. Therefore the area can also be
derived from the lengths of the sides. By Heron's formula:

where is the semi perimeter, or half of the triangle's perimeter.

Three equivalent ways of writing Heron's formula are

[edit]Formulas mimicking Heron's formula

Three formulas have the same structure as Heron's formula but are expressed in
terms of different variables. First, denoting the medians from sides a, b,
and c respectively as ma,mb, and mc and their semi-sum (ma + mb + mc) / 2 as ,
[13]
we have

Next, denoting the altitudes from sides a, b, and c respectively as ha, hb,
and hc, and denoting the semi-sum of the reciprocals of the altitudes
[14]
as we have

And denoting the semi-sum of the angles' sines

[15]
as , we have

Where D is the diameter of the

circumcircle:

Using Pick's Theorem

See Pick's theorem for a technique for finding the area of any arbitrary lattice polygon.

The theorem states:

 where I is the number of internal lattice points and B is the number of lattice points lying on the
border of the polygon.

[edit]Other area formulas

Numerous other area formulas exist, such as

where r is the inradius, and s is the semiperimeter;

[16]
for circumdiameter D; and

for angle 90.

Denoting the radius of the inscribed circle as r and the radii of the excircles as r1, r2,
[17]
and r3, the area can be expressed as

[18]
In 1885, Baker gave a collection of over a hundred distinct area formulas
for the triangle (although the reader should be advised that a few of them are
incorrect). These include #9, #39a, #39b, #42, and #49:

or circumradius (radius of the circumcircle) R, and

Triangles in construction
Main article: Truss

The Flatiron Building in New York is triangularly shaped.

Rectangles have been the most popular and common geometric form for
buildings since the shape is easy to stack and organize; as a standard, it
is easy to design furniture and fixtures to fit inside rectangularly-shaped
buildings. But triangles, while more difficult to use conceptually, provide
a great deal of strength. As computer technology helps architects design
creative new buildings, triangular shapes are becoming increasingly
prevalent as parts of buildings and as the primary shape for some types
of skyscrapers as well as building materials. In Tokyo in 1989, architects
had wondered whether it was possible to build a 500 story tower to
provide affordable office space for this densely packed city, but with the
danger to buildings from earthquakes, architects considered that a
triangular shape would have been necessary if such a building was ever
to have been built (it hasn't by 2011).[26] In New York City,
asBroadway crisscrosses major avenues, the resulting blocks are cut
like triangles, and buildings have been built on these shapes; one such
building is the triangularly-shaped Flatiron Building which real estate
people admit has a "warren of awkward spaces that do not easily
accommodate modern office furniture" but that has not prevented the
structure from becoming a landmark icon.[27] Designers have made
houses in Norway using triangular themes.[28]Triangle shapes have
appeared in churches[29] as well as public buildings including
colleges[30] as well as supports for innovative home designs.[31] Triangles
are sturdy; while a rectangle can collapse into a parallelogram from
pressure to one of its points, triangles have a natural strength which
supports structures against lateral pressures. A triangle will not change
shape unless its sides are bent or extended or broken or if its joints
break; in essence, each of the three sides supports the other two. A
rectangle, in contrast, is more dependent on the strength of its joints in a
structural sense. Some innovative designers have proposed
making bricks not out of rectangles, but with triangular shapes which can
be combined in three dimensions.[32] It is likely that triangles will be used
increasingly in new ways as architecture increases in complexity.
[edit]