Arbitrary triangles ABD, BCE and CAF have been constructed on the sides of △ABC in the dynamic sketch below. Sides and angles have been measured and respective products calculated as shown.
Explore
1) Click on the 'Show Product' button.
2) What you notice about the product of (AD/DB)*(BE/EC)*(CF/FA) and (sinDAB/sinDBA)*(sinEBC/sinECB)*(sinFCA/sinFAC)?
3) Is it always true? Make a conjecture and explore by dragging any of the red vertices.
Invariant Product & Anghel's Hexagon Concurrency theorem
Challenge
4) Can you explain why (prove) your observation in 3) is true?
Hint: Use the sine rule.
Further Generalization
5) From your explanation/proof in 4), can you generalize this invariant product further to quadrilaterals, pentagons, etc.?
Explore More
6) Click on the 'Show Lines' button.
7) What do you notice about the red lines? Are they always concurrent?
8) Can you find necessary and sufficient conditions for the red lines to be concurrent? Explore dynamically!
9) Check your answer to 8), by clicking on the 'Show Anghel's Hexagon Concurrency theorem' button to navigate to a new sketch.
10) In the new sketch, click on the 'Show Lines' button.
11) What do you notice? Check your findings by dragging. Can you formulate a conjecture?
Anghel's Hexagon Concurrency theorem
Given a hexagon ADBECF, then its main diagonals AE, BF and CD are concurrent, if and only if, (sinDAB/sinDBA)*(sinEBC/sinECB)*(sinFCA/sinFAC)*(sinDBC/sinABE)*(sinECA/sinBCF)*(sinFAB/sinCAD) = 1 - see Anghel (2016, 2018).
(Or equivalently, the main diagonals are concurrent, if and only if, (AD/DB)*(BE/EC)*(CF/FA) = (sinDBC/sinABE)*(sinECA/sinBCF)*(sinFAB/sinCAD)).
Note as shown by Anghel (2018), this theorem can also be viewed as equivalent to a generalization of the trigonometric version of Ceva's theorem.
References
Anghel, N. (2016).Concurrency and Collinearity in Hexagons. Journal for Geometry and Graphics, Volume 20, No. 2, 159–171.
Anghel, N. (2018). Concurrency in Hexagons - a Trigonometric Tale. Journal for Geometry and Graphics, Volume 22, No. 1, 21–29.
Some Applications of Anghel's theorem
Concurrency, collinearity and other properties of a particular hexagon
Jacobi's Generalization of the Fermat-Torricelli point
An extension of the IMO 2014 Problem 4
Another concurrency related to the Fermat point of a triangle
Related Links
Concurrency, collinearity and other properties of a particular hexagon
Jacobi's Generalization of the Fermat-Torricelli point
An extension of the IMO 2014 Problem 4
Another concurrency related to the Fermat point of a triangle
De Villiers points of a triangle
Power Lines of a Triangle
Haag Hexagon and its generalization to a Haag Polygon
Haag Hexagon - Extra Properties
Easy Hexagon Explorations
Free Download of Geometer's Sketchpad
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Created with WebSketchpad 22 July 2024 by Michael de Villiers.