In
geometry, a circular triangle is a
triangle with circular
arc
ARC may refer to:
Business
* Aircraft Radio Corporation, a major avionics manufacturer from the 1920s to the '50s
* Airlines Reporting Corporation, an airline-owned company that provides ticket distribution, reporting, and settlement services
* ...
edges
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
.
Construction
A convex circular triangle may be constructed by three
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 intersecting each other and represents the area of intersection. Its edges are all curved outwards. The sum of the
internal angle
In geometry, an angle of a polygon is formed by two sides of the polygon that share an endpoint. For a simple (non-self-intersecting) polygon, regardless of whether it is convex or non-convex, this angle is called an interior angle (or ) if ...
s of a circular triangle is greater than 180°. A
Reuleaux triangle
A Reuleaux triangle is a curved triangle with constant width, the simplest and best known curve of constant width other than the circle. It is formed from the intersection of three circular disks, each having its center on the boundary of the ...
is a special case based on an
equilateral triangle
In geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length. In the familiar Euclidean geometry, an equilateral triangle is also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each oth ...
where the center of each arc is on the opposite vertex.
A circular horn triangle is a similar concept, but represents the area interior to 3 mutually tangent circles so all of the
internal angle
In geometry, an angle of a polygon is formed by two sides of the polygon that share an endpoint. For a simple (non-self-intersecting) polygon, regardless of whether it is convex or non-convex, this angle is called an interior angle (or ) if ...
s are zero. The
arbelos
In geometry, an arbelos is a plane region bounded by three semicircles with three apexes such that each corner of each semicircle is shared with one of the others (connected), all on the same side of a straight line (the ''baseline'') that conta ...
is a special case with three
collinear
In geometry, collinearity of a set of points is the property of their lying on a single line. A set of points with this property is said to be collinear (sometimes spelled as colinear). In greater generality, the term has been used for aligned o ...
vertices and three
semicircular
In mathematics (and more specifically geometry), a semicircle is a one-dimensional Locus (mathematics), locus of points that forms half of a circle. The full Arc (geometry), arc of a semicircle always measures 180° (equivalently, radians, or a ...
edges.
[.]
Other circular triangles can have a mixture of convex and concave circular arc edges.
:

Long arcs can produce concave figures regardless of whether individual edges are curved inwards or outwards. Inward curved arcs can create self-intersecting forms, such as the a
triquetra
The triquetra ( ; from the Latin adjective ''triquetrus'' "three-cornered") is a triangular figure composed of three interlaced arcs, or (equivalently) three overlapping '' vesicae piscis'' lens shapes. It is used as an ornamental design in ar ...
figure:
:
Tessellations

Circular triangles can be seen in
tessellation
A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of ge ...
.
See also
*
Hyperbolic triangle
In hyperbolic geometry, a hyperbolic triangle is a triangle in the hyperbolic plane. It consists of three line segments called ''sides'' or ''edges'' and three points called ''angles'' or ''vertices''.
Just as in the Euclidean case, three poi ...
– a triangle that has straight sides in hyperbolic geometry, but is drawn as circular in some models of hyperbolic geometry
*
Lune
Lune may refer to:
Rivers
*River Lune, in Lancashire and Cumbria, England
*River Lune, Durham, in County Durham, England
*Lune (Weser), a 43 km-long tributary of the Weser in Germany
*Lune River (Tasmania), in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia
Pl ...
and
Lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'' ...
– circular
digon
In geometry, a digon is a polygon with two sides ( edges) and two vertices. Its construction is degenerate in a Euclidean plane because either the two sides would coincide or one or both would have to be curved; however, it can be easily visu ...
s
References
* Richard Courant, Herbert Robbins, ''What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods'', pp. 378–37
External links
*
*
*
{{elementary-geometry-stub
Piecewise-circular curves
Types of triangles