In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle which passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter.
A polygon which has a circumscribed circle is called a cyclic polygon. All regular simple polygons, all triangles and all rectangles are cyclic.
A related notion is the one of a minimum bounding circle, which is the smallest circle that completely contains the polygon within it. Not every polygon has a circumscribed circle, as the vertices of a polygon do not need to all lie on a circle, but every polygon has unique minimum bounding circle, which may be constructed by a linear time algorithm.[1] Even if a polygon has a circumscribed circle, it may not coincide with its minimum bounding circle; for example, for an obtuse triangle, the minimum bounding circle has the longest side as diameter and does not pass through the opposite vertex.
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Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:20:23 GM
Now i have to . circle. walk more. :). 2009-07-08 Reply · PesciTriD: The geometry teacher frowned as she corrected the tests. Why all these strange answers to the . circumscribed circle. question? #twiction. 2009-07-08 Reply ...
