Triangle Median

A median of a triangle is the Cevian from one of its vertices to the midpoint
of the opposite side. The three medians of any triangle are concurrent (Casey 1888, p. 3),
meeting in the triangle centroid (Durell 1928) , which has trilinear coordinates . In
addition, the medians of a triangle divide one another in the ratio 2:1 (Casey 1888, p. 3). A
median also bisects the area of a triangle.

Let denote the length of the median of the th side . Then

(1
)
(2
)

(Casey 1888, p. 23; Johnson 1929, p. 68). The area of a triangle can be expressed in terms of the
medians by

(3
)

where

Side
Side of a triangle is a line segment that connects two vertices. Triangle has three sides, it is
denoted by a, b, and c in the figure below.
Vertex
Vertex is the point of intersection of two sides of triangle. The three vertices of the triangle are
denoted by A, B, and C in the figure below. Notice that the opposite of vertex A is side a,
opposite to vertex B is side B, and opposite to vertex C is side c.

Included Angle or Vertex Angle

Included angle is the angle subtended by two sides at the vertex of the triangle. It is also called
vertex angle. For convenience, each included angle has the same notation to that of the vertex, ie.
angle A is the included angle at vertex A, and so on. The sum of the included angles of the
triangle is always equal to 180°.

A+B+C=180

Altitude, h
Altitude is a line from vertex perpendicular to the opposite side. The altitudes of the triangle will
intersect at a common point called orthocenter.

If sides a, b, and c are known, solve one of the angles using Cosine Law then solve the altitude of
the triangle by functions of a right triangle. If the area of the triangle At is known, the following
formulas are useful in solving for the altitudes.

hA=a2At;hB=b2At;hC=c2At
Base
The base of the triangle is relative to which altitude is being considered. Figure below shows the
bases of the triangle and its corresponding altitude.

 If hA is taken as altitude then side a is the base

 If hB is taken as altitude then side b is the base
 If hC is taken as altitude then side c is the base

Median, m
Median of the triangle is a line from vertex to the midpoint of the opposite side. A triangle has
three medians, and these three will intersect at the centroid. The figure below shows the median
through A denoted by mA.

Given three sides of the triangle, the median can be solved by two steps.

1. Solve for one included angle, say angle C, using Cosine Law. From the figure above,
solve for C in triangle ABC.
2. Using triangle ADC, determine the median through A by Cosine Law.
The formulas below, though not recommended, can be used to solve for the length of the
medians.

4mA2=2b2+2c2−a2

4mB2=2a2+2c2−b2

4mC2=2a2+2b2−c2

Where mA, mB, and mC are medians through A, B, and C, respectively.

Angle Bisector
Angle bisector of a triangle is a line that divides one included angle into two equal angles. It is
drawn from vertex to the opposite side of the triangle. Since there are three included angles of
the triangle, there are also three angle bisectors, and these three will intersect at the incenter. The
figure shown below is the bisector of angle A, its length from vertex A to side a is denoted as bA.

The length of angle bisectors is given by the following formulas:

bA=b+c2 bcs(s−a) 

bB=a+c2 acs(s−b) 

bC=a+b2 abs(s−c) 

where s=21(a+b+c) called the semi-perimeter and bA, bB, and bC are bisectors of angles A, B, and
C, respectively. The given formulas are not worth memorizing for if you are given three sides,
you can easily solve the length of angle bisectors by using the Cosine and Sine Laws.

 
Perpendicular Bisector
Perpendicular bisector of the triangle is a perpendicular line that crosses through midpoint of the
side of the triangle. The three perpendicular bisectors are worth noting for it intersects at the
center of the circumscribing circle of the triangle. The point of intersection is called the
circumcenter. The figure below shows the perpendicular bisector through side b.

Point of concurrency

As a corollary of Ceva's theorem, the three medians are concurrent. The point of concurrency is
known as the triangle's centroid, or centre of mass of the triangle. Note that this means that the
centroid is always in the interior of the triangle. Two-thirds of the length of each median is
between the vertex and the centroid, while one-third is between the centroid and the midpoint of
the opposite side.

[edit] Equal-area division

Each median divides the triangle in half; hence the name. The three medians divide the triangle
into six smaller triangles of equal area.

Any other lines which divide the area of the triangle into two equal parts do not pass through the
centroid.[1]

[edit] Proof

Consider a triangle ABC Let D be the midpoint of , E be the midpoint of , F be the

midpoint of , and O be the centroid.

By definition, , thus
,
where [ABC] represents the area of triangle .

We have:

Thus, and

Since , therefore,
. Using the same method, you can show that
.

[edit] Formula for length

The length of the median can be obtained from Apollonius' theorem as:

where a, b and c are the sides of the triangle and a is the side of the triangle whose midpoint is
the extreme point of median m.
 Median and Centroid of a Triangle
A median of a triangle is a straight line through a
vertex and the midpoint of the opposite side.
The three medians ma, mb, and mc, intersect in a
single point, the triangle's centroid.

For triangles made of homogeneous material

(and with constant thickness) the centroid is
also the triangle's center of gravity G. The
centroid cuts every median in the ratio 2:1,
i.e. the distance between a vertex and the
centroid is twice as long as the distance between the centroid and the midpoint of the opposite
side.

The lengths of the medians are defined by the following equations:

Please note that any median cuts the triangle into two triangles which have two sides of equal length

he centroid satisfies

In any triangle, there are some very interesting features as follows.

1)    All the three angular bisectors of a triangle are concurrent.

2)    All the three perpendicular bisectors of the sides of a triangle are concurrent.

3)    All the three medians of a triangle are concurrent.

4)    All the three altitudes of a triangle are concurrent.

The four concurrent points as described are the centers of a triangle.

Centers of Triangle – Concurrency of Angular Bisectors

The concurrent point of all the three internal bisectors of a triangle is called the incenter. It is
denoted as I. This center of a triangle is equidistant from all the three sides and hence a circle can
be inscribed inside the triangle which is called as incircle of the triangle. The radius of the circle
is denoted as r.

If you notice, the area of the triangle

 =  sum of he areas of the three interior triangles

 = (1/2)(r)(a) + (1/2)(r)(b) + (1/2)(r)(c)    

 = (1/2)(r)(a + b + c) = (r)(s), where s = (1/2)((a + b + c)

Centers of a Triangle – Concurrency of Perpendicular Bisectors

The concurrency point of all the three perpendicular bisectors of the sides of a triangle is called
the circumcenter. It is denoted as X. This center of a triangle is equidistant from all the three
vertices and hence  the triangle can be circumscribed by a circle which is called as circumcircle
of the triangle. The radius of the circle is denoted as R.

The circumcenter will be outside the triangle if it is obtuse triangle and will be at the mid point
of hypotenuse if it is a right triangle.

Centers of a Triangle – Concurrency of Medians

The concurrency point of all the three medians of a triangle is called the centroid. It is denoted as
C. This center of a triangle divides each median in the ratio of 2:1.Median is theline joining the
centre of a side to the opposite vertex.