Mathematica demos for teaching

by Oliver Knill

Interactive geometric object with points and lines

It needs only a few lines to generate a demonstration.

CircumscribedCircle=Manipulate[ (* Oliver Knill, Mathematica 7, 2008 *)
 Graphics[{
   {x1,y1}=p1; {x2,y2}=p2; {x3,y3}=p3;
   R=2*(x3*(y1-y2)+x1*(y2-y3)+x2*(-y1+y3));
   m1=(x3^2*(y1-y2)+(x1^2+(y1-y2)*(y1-y3))*(y2-y3)+x2^2*(-y1+y3))/R;
   m2=(-(x2^2*x3)+x1^2*(-x2+x3)+x3*(y1^2-y2^2)
      +x1*(x2^2-x3^2+y2^2-y3^2)+x2*(x3^2-y1^2+y3^2))/R;
   center={m1,m2}; radius=Sqrt[(center-p1).(center-p1)]; 
   {RGBColor[1,0,0],Dynamic[Disk[center,0.07]]},
   {RGBColor[0,0,1],Dynamic[{Disk[p1,0.1],Disk[p2,0.1],Disk[p3,0.1]}]},
   {RGBColor[1,0,0],Thickness[0.007],Dynamic[Circle[center,radius]]},
   {RGBColor[0,1,0],Thickness[0.004],Dynamic[Line[{p1,p2,p3,p1}]]},
   Locator[Dynamic[p1],ImageSize->40],
   Locator[Dynamic[p2],ImageSize->40],
   Locator[Dynamic[p3],ImageSize->40]},
   PlotRange->{{-2,2},{-2,2}},ImageSize->{600,600}],
   {{p1,{ 1.1,0.6}},{-1,-1},{1,1},ControlType->None},
   {{p2,{-0.9,0.5}},{-1,-1},{1,1},ControlType->None},
   {{p3,{-0.3,1.2}},{-1,-1},{1,1},ControlType->None}
]

By the way, here is the computation of the center of the circumscribed circle (the formulas at the beginning of the demonstration).

p1={x1,y1}; p2={x2,y2}; p3={x3,y3}; perp[{a_,b_}]:={-b,a};
n2=p1-p2; n3=p1-p3; m2=(p1+p2)/2; m3=(p1+p3)/2; 
Solve[{n2.({x,y}-m2)==0, n3.({x,y}-m3)==0},{x,y}]  *)