geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

, the Spieker center is a special point associated with a plane

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

. It is defined as the

center of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the d ...

of the

perimeter A perimeter is the length of a closed boundary that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two-dimensional shape or a one-dimensional line. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference. Calculating the perimet ...

of the triangle. The Spieker center of a triangle is the

center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For ...

of a homogeneous wire frame in the shape of . The point is named in honor of the 19th-century

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

geometer Theodor Spieker. The Spieker center is a

triangle center In geometry, a triangle center or triangle centre is a point in the triangle's plane that is in some sense in the middle of the triangle. For example, the centroid, circumcenter, incenter and orthocenter were familiar to the ancient Greeks, ...

and it is listed as the point ''X''(10) in Clark Kimberling's

Encyclopedia of Triangle Centers The Encyclopedia of Triangle Centers (ETC) is an online list of thousands of points or " centers" associated with the geometry of a triangle. This resource is hosted at the University of Evansville The University of Evansville (UE) is a priv ...

Location

The following result can be used to locate the Spieker center of any triangle. :The Spieker center of triangle is the

incenter In geometry, the incenter of a triangle is a triangle center, a point defined for any triangle in a way that is independent of the triangle's placement or scale. The incenter may be equivalently defined as the point where the internal angle bis ...

of the

medial triangle In Euclidean geometry, the medial triangle or midpoint triangle of a triangle is the triangle with vertices at the midpoints of the triangle's sides . It is the case of the midpoint polygon of a polygon with sides. The medial triangle is no ...

of . That is, the Spieker center of is the center of the circle

inscribed An inscribed triangle of a circle In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. To say that "figure F is inscribed in figure G" means precisely the same th ...

in the

of . This circle is known as the

Spieker circle In geometry, the incircle of the medial triangle of a triangle is the Spieker circle, named after 19th-century German geometer Theodor Spieker. Its center, the Spieker center, in addition to being the incenter of the medial triangle, is the cent ...

. The Spieker center is also located at the intersection of the three cleavers of triangle . A cleaver of a triangle is a line segment that bisects the perimeter of the triangle and has one endpoint at the midpoint of one of the three sides. Each cleaver contains the center of mass of the boundary of , so the three cleavers meet at the Spieker center. To see that the incenter of the medial triangle coincides with the intersection point of the cleavers, consider a homogeneous wireframe in the shape of triangle consisting of three wires in the form of line segments having lengths . The wire frame has the same center of mass as a system of three particles of masses placed at the midpoints of the sides . The centre of mass of the particles at and is the point which divides the segment in the ratio . The line is the internal bisector of . The centre of mass of the three particle system thus lies on the internal bisector of . Similar arguments show that the center mass of the three particle system lies on the internal bisectors of and also. It follows that the center of mass of the wire frame is the point of concurrence of the internal bisectors of the angles of the triangle , which is the incenter of the medial triangle .

Properties

Let be the Spieker center of triangle . *The

trilinear coordinates In geometry, the trilinear coordinates of a point relative to a given triangle describe the relative directed distances from the three sidelines of the triangle. Trilinear coordinates are an example of homogeneous coordinates. The ratio is ...

of are ::

bc(b+c) : ca(c+a) : ab(a+b).

*The barycentric coordinates of are ::

b+c : c+a : a+b.

* is the radical center of the three

excircle In geometry, the incircle or inscribed circle of a triangle is the largest circle that can be contained in the triangle; it touches (is tangent to) the three sides. The center of the incircle is a triangle center called the triangle's incenter. ...

s. * is the cleavance center of triangle * is

collinear In geometry, collinearity of a set of Point (geometry), points is the property of their lying on a single Line (geometry), line. A set of points with this property is said to be collinear (sometimes spelled as colinear). In greater generality, t ...

with the

(), the

centroid In mathematics and physics, the centroid, also known as geometric center or center of figure, of a plane figure or solid figure is the arithmetic mean position of all the points in the figure. The same definition extends to any object in n-d ...

(), and the Nagel point () of triangle . Moreover, ::

IS= SM, \quad IG= 2 \cdot GS, \quad MG= 2\cdot IG.

:Thus on a suitably scaled and positioned number line, , , , and . * lies on the Kiepert hyperbola. is the point of concurrence of the lines where are similar, isosceles and similarly situated triangles constructed on the sides of triangle as bases, having the common base angle ::

\theta = \tan^\left \tan\left(\frac\right) \tan\left(\frac\right) \tan\left(\frac\right) \right

References

{{reflist Triangle centers