geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

, the six circles theorem relates to a chain of six

circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

s together with a

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

, such that each circle is

tangent In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point. Leibniz defined it as the line through a pair of infinitely close points on the curve. More ...

to two sides of the triangle and also to the preceding circle in the chain. The chain closes, in the sense that the sixth circle is always tangent to the first circle. It is assumed in this construction that all circles lie within the triangle, and all points of tangency lie on the sides of the triangle. If the problem is generalized to allow circles that may not be within the triangle, and points of tangency on the lines extending the sides of the triangle, then the sequence of circles eventually reaches a periodic sequence of six circles, but may take arbitrarily many steps to reach this periodicity. The name may also refer to

Miquel's six circles theorem Miquel's theorem is a result in geometry, named after Auguste Miquel, concerning the intersection of three circles, each drawn through one vertex of a triangle and two points on its adjacent sides. It is one of several results concerning circles ...

, the result that if five circles have four triple points of intersection then the remaining four points of intersection lie on a sixth circle.

References

External links

* {{MathWorld, title=Six Circles Theorem, urlname=SixCirclesTheorem Theorems about circles