[alogo] 1. The simplest circumconic

The simplest circumconic is the circumcircle c0 of an equilateral triangle A0B0C0. The trilinear polar of the center O of the equilateral is the line at infinity. The circumcircle c0 is the incircle of the anticomplementary triangle A1B1C1 of the equilateral. The trilinear polars tr1(P0) of points P0 at infinity with respect to A1B1C1 envelope c0.
This is discussed in InconicsTangents.html . There is also shown how this generalizes to arbitrary conics inscribed in an arbitrary triangle.

[alogo] 2. The general circumconic

If c is a circumconic (i.e. circumscribed ) of the triangle ABC, then Pascal's theorem for triangles (see PascalOnTriangles.html ) implies that the lines joining the vertices the tangential triangle A''B''C'' of the conic (formed by the tangents of the conic at the vertices of ABC) with opposite vertices of the triangle pass through a point P. This implies that the circumconic (c) can be obtained from the circumcircle c0 of the equilateral by an appropriate projectivity F.
In fact, define F by the requirements to map the vertices of the equilateral {A0,B0,C0} to {A,B,C} and its center (or centroid) O to point P. Having defined F one can apply it to (c0) and obtain its image c'=F(c0) which is a conic circumscribing triangle ABC. Since F preserves lines and contacts and cross ratios the anticomplementary triangle A1B1C1 of ABC maps to triangle A''B''C'' of the harmonic associates of P with respect to ABC. Conic c'=F(c0) passes through the vertices of ABC and has there the same tangents with c. Hence the two conics coincide.
The line at infinity L0 is mapped by F to the trilinear polar tr(P) and trilinear polars with respect to A1B1C of points P0 on L0 are mapped to trilinear polars with respect to A''B''C'' of points Q=F(P0) on tr(P). Since all lines tr1(P0) envelope c0 (see IncircleTangents.html ), the trilinear polars tr''(Q) of points Q on tr(P) will also envelope conic c.

[0_0] [0_1] [0_2] [0_3]
[1_0] [1_1] [1_2] [1_3]

Symbols tr, tr1 and tr'' used above denote the operation of taking the tripolar of a point with respect to triangles ABC and A1B1C1 and A''B''C'' respectively.

[alogo] 3. Generation by tripoles

Circumconic c is also the locus of tripolars tr(L) of lines L through point P. This is noticed in IsogonalGeneralized.html for the case of the equilateral. The general case results by taking the image by F (or using coordinates). The figure indicates the relation between the tripole tr(PQ) of line PQ and the contact point Q' of the tangent tr''(Q). The two points together with P are collinear. See the file TriangleConics.html for an alternative discussion using coordinates.

See Also

IncircleTangents.html
InconicsTangents.html
InscribedConicAsEnvelope.html
IsogonalGeneralized.html
PascalOnTriangles.html
TriangleConics.html
Trilinears.html

References

Yiu, P. GeometryNotes020402 (pdf). http://www.math.fau.edu/yiu/GeometryNotes020402.pdf

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