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Determine third point of triangle when two points and all sides are known?
Determine third point of triangle (on a 2D plane) when two points and all sides are known?
A = (0,0)
B = (5,0)
C = (?, ?)
AB = 5
BC = 4
AC = 3

Can someone please explain how to go about this? I understand there will be two possible points and would like to
arrive at both.
This is what I've worked out but I'm uncertain at this point how correct it is.
C.x = (AB BC + AC) / (2 * AB)
C.y = sqrt(BC (B.x C.x)) B.y

Thanks!
Update - Need to turn the answer into a reusable formula, solving for C.x and C.y
known sides AB, BC, AC
known points A(x, y), B(x, y)
unknown points C(x, y)
AC BC = ((Ax Cx) + (Ay Cy)) ((Bx Cx) + (By Cy))

Goal:
C.x = ?
C.y = ?

(geometry) (trigonometry) (graphing-functions)

edited Oct 30 '13 at 0:33

asked Oct 29 '13 at 9:38

boom
148

See also math.stackexchange.com/q/650578/35416 MvG Nov 4 '14 at 17:52

Notice that this is a right triangle (because 32
Apr 15 '15 at 19:16

+ 42 = 52 ). Drawing a picture might help. Akiva Weinberger

+1 for the "reusable" update. Victor Sergienko Aug 6 at 13:57

6 Answers

The distance between two points P (p1 , p2 ) and Q(q1 , q2 ) in the plane is

(q1 p1 )2 + (q2 p2 )2 .

Let us denote coordinates of C by (x, y) . Then the distances between from C to A and from C
to B will be

x2 + y 2 = 3 x2 + y 2 = 9

(x 5)2 + y 2 = 4 (x 5)2 + y 2 = 16
respectively. Substracting the first equation from the second equation we get

(x 5)2 x2 = 7 x2 10x + 25 x2 = 7
10x + 25 = 7 x =
Now if we substitute x =

(x, y) =

( 95 , 12
)
5

9
5

18
9
=
10
5

into one of the above equations we get y = 12

So we find
5

and (x , y ) = ( 95 , 12
).
5

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geometry - Determine third point of triangle when two points and all sides are known?... Page 2 of 3

As you see from the picture these two points are symmetric w.r.t x axis.

edited Oct 29 '13 at 19:39

answered Oct 29 '13 at 10:42

mer
1,731

14

I see, can you help me understand how you went from those equations to (9/5,12/5) ? Possibly showing
the formula to solve for both x and y individually? Thanks for the help. boom Oct 29 '13 at 19:22
I edited my post to make it clear for you. mer Oct 29 '13 at 19:40
Thanks, this is a great answer. I have one more question though if you don't mind. Part of what I need to do
is create a reusable formula for x = (C.x) and y = (C.y). I've edited my answer with where I am stuck,
any EXTRA :) help is appreciated. Thanks again! boom Oct 29 '13 at 21:29
2

Care to share your final solution for other people having the same question? Gal Mar 12 '14 at 16:01

@boom Yes please share! I'm one of those people :p thanby Jul 3 '14 at 18:19

The triangle is Pythagorean. Since ab = ch the second coordinate of C is 12/5 . From

a2 = cp the first coordinate of C is 5/9 thus there are two solutions.
answered Oct 29 '13 at 11:35

Michael Hoppe
6,326

26

Sorry, can you elaborate on the formulas used? boom Oct 29 '13 at 19:09
Of course. For the first formula note that the area of an Pythagorean triangle is either ch/2 or ab/2 , for the
latter refer to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean_theorem Michael Hoppe Oct 29 '13 at 20:12

You can not determine unless there is a direction in the graph.

As i see we have AB,BC,AC. If the way they are written imposes a direction then we see that it is
not a directed graph. It would be if the sides would be written AB,BC,CA.
answered Oct 29 '13 at 10:04

Haha
4,592

14

AB == BA, BC == CB, AC == CA (there will be more than one possible answer) boom Oct 29 '13 at 10:06

yes of course.i just wrote an example:) Haha Oct 29 '13 at 10:29

Here's what I've got: X = (Ax+Bx)/2 plus or minus [(1/2)*sqrt(3)*sqrt((Bx-Ax)^2+(By-Ay)

^2)]/[sqrt((-(Bx-Ax)/(By-Ay)+1)]
Then solve for y using any random formula such as the distance formula (since you have x)
Where (X,Y) = unknowns, and (Ax, Ay) is one vertex, and (Bx, By) is another.
Note the above equation may be wrong, but how I can tell you how I got it:
I found the midpoint and opposite reciprocal slope of the line of the two existing vertexes.
Then, I found the height of the triangle, which is always half of the base * sqrt(3) due to basic
trigonometry. Then, using the midpoint, I used the distance formula and the point-slope
formula squared to set up an equation for X and Y, which simplified into the answer above.

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geometry - Determine third point of triangle when two points and all sides are known?... Page 3 of 3

I'm going to test in a program soon. Just putting my process out there to see if it helps you.
answered Apr 15 '15 at 16:52

Mr. E
1

Please this this and this on how to better format your mathematics on MathSE. Mike Pierce Apr 15 '15 at
17:34

Here is a solution in JavaScript

https://gist.github.com/Kalagan/d394d210c772a48be067d7e3b856dd1e
//a,b,c are the sides of the triangle
function get_third_point_coordinates(a, b, c){
var result = {x:0,y:0};
if(a > 0){
result.x = (c*c b*b + a*a) / (2*a);
}
result.y = Math.sqrt(c*c result.x*result.x);
return result;
}
answered Apr 6 at 10:55

Julien
101

Though this solution may be programatically correct, it cannot be accepted as a mathematical solution
Shailesh Apr 6 at 10:59

Given coordinates of A and B and lengths AB, AC and BC we want to find coordinates of C. Lets
assume that A is at (0,0) and B is at (0,AB) i.e. in the y-direction. Lets also assume that we
know point C is in the +ve x-direction (there is another solution in the other direction). It
should be simple to reduce a more general problem to this case. The solution is then:
Cy = (AB^2 + AC^2 - BC^2) / 2*AB Cx = sqrt(AC^2 - Cy^2)
The derivation of this is given below:
Consider the triangle ABC as two right angle triangles as shown:
Solution of triangle coordinates
If we call the coordinates of C Cx and Cy, then Pythagoras theorem for each of the two triangles
gives:
AC^2 = Cy^2 + Cx^2 (1) BC^2 = (AB-Cy)^2 + Cx^2 (2)
Rearranging (1) gives
Cx^2 = AC^2-Cy^2 (3)
Substituting (3) into (2) and rearranging gives
BC^2 = (AB-Cy)^2 + AC^2-Cy^2 = AB^2 - 2*AB*Cy + AC^2
Cy = (AB^2 + AC^2 - BC^2) / 2*AB (4)
Since Cy is now known Cx can be found by rearranging (1) to give
Cx = sqrt(AC^2 - Cy^2)
answered Oct 28 at 13:38

Jody Muelaner
1

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