Questions tagged [inversive-geometry]

Questions related to Inversive Geometry and its applications.

Wikipedia says

In geometry, inversive geometry is the study of those properties of figures that are preserved by a generalization of a type of transformation of the Euclidean plane, called inversion. These transformations preserve angles and map generalized circles into generalized circles, where a generalized circle means either a circle or a line (loosely speaking, a circle with infinite radius). Many difficult problems in geometry become much more tractable when an inversion is applied.

The concept of inversion can be generalized to higher dimensional spaces.

$\newcommand{\inv}{\operatorname*{inv}}$ Inversion through the sphere $S(c,r)$ centered at $c$ with radius $r$, is defined as $$ \inv_{S(c,r)}(x)=c+r^2\frac{x-c}{|x-c|^2} $$ That is, the direction from $c$ to $x$ is preserved, but the new distance from $c$ to $x$ is $r^2$ divided by the old distance. Thus, $S(c,r)$ is preserved by $\inv_{S(c,r)}$ and $\inv_{S(c,r)}$ is its own inverse.

107 questions
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Draw three congruent circles all touching one another, and a second set of three such circles, each touching also two of the first set.

This corresponds to a Steiner's Porism configuration with n = 4, however the trouble I'm having is that while it is easy to construct an n = 4 Steiner's Porism configuration (see second image below), I don't know what the circle of inversion would…
user77970
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Find the circle of inversion that inverts one given triangle into another given triangle.

Given triangles ABC and DEF, find the center O and radius k of the circle of inversion such that the inverses A', B', C' of A, B, C form a triangle congruent to $\Delta DEF.$ (This is problem 5.3.6 from Geometry Revisited, by Coxeter and…
user77970
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Why is inversion in a straight line the same as reflection?

In the inversive plane points $P$ and $P'$ are defined to be inverses with respect to a circle $\omega$ of radius $k$ and center $O$ when they are distinct from $O$, on the same ray emanating from $O$, and $OP * OP' = k^2$. When $\omega$ is a…
user77970
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Is this usage of the term 'Jacobian' related to the other uses e.g. matrix or elliptic function?

In the inversive geometry exercise below (from Geometry Revisited by Coxeter and Greitzer), the solution refers to the point pair $(L, O)$ as the Jacobian of the two point pairs $AC$ and $BD$. I was (and am) vaguely aware of at least two other…
user77970
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Parallel lines as generalised circles in inversive geometry

Consider the inversion of circles ($w_1$ and $w_2$) w.r.t. the circle ($c$) that gives circles of infinite radius ($t_1$ and $t_2$ respectively). What is the nature of the generalised circles $t_1$ and $t_2$ (are they intersecting at one point OR…
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Parallel lines in inversive geometry

Please give the definition of parallel lines(generalised circles) in inversive geometry? Is there a unique definition (because i am confused about the duality of line with circle)? If parallel is defined only for straight lines then how can we…
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Inverting a triangle about a circle centered at the orthocenter.

If the vertices of triangle $\Delta ABC$ are inverted about a circle $\omega$ centered at the orthocenter $H$ of $\Delta ABC$, the new triangle $\Delta A'B'C'$, is similar to the orthic triangle of $\Delta ABC$. Additionally it is rotated a…
user77970
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Prove that line is orthogonal using inversion

P' is the inverse of P with respect to the circle c and M is a point of a circle c. Line through M and P intersects with c at A and line through M and P' intersects with c at B. Prove that AB is orthogonal to PP'. I think I'm supposed to invert…
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My doubt on Inversive Geometry with cyclic quadrilaterals

Let A , B , C be 3 points on a circle $\omega$ . let the tangents at A and at B meet at D . Let DC meets the circle again at E . Then prove that the line AE bisects BD iff AB = BC . I have done at lot of work on it and as one might see that if I…
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What does "Inversion about $C$" mean?

Let $\Delta ABC$ be a triangle with orthocenter $H$ and altitudes $AD, BE, CF$. Perform an inversion around $C$ with radius $\sqrt{CH \cdot CF}$. Where do the six points each go? I'm having trouble with the wording of the statement. Does it mean…
Mathejunior
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Concentric circles in inversive-geometry

Is it possible to obtain two concentric generalised circles(parallel straight lines) through inversion of two circles w.r.t a third circle?