Forum Geometricorum
Volume 12 (2012) 237–241. b
b
b
FORUM GEOM
ISSN 1534-1178
Maximal Area of a Bicentric Quadrilateral
Martin Josefsson
Abstract. We prove an inequality for the area of a bicentric quadrilateral in
terms of the radii of the two associated circles and show how to construct the
quadrilateral of maximal area.
1. Introduction
A bicentric quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral that has both an incircle and
a circumcircle, so it is both tangential and cyclic. Given two circles, one within
the other with radii r and R (where r < R), then a necessary condition that there
can be a bicentric quadrilateral associated with these circles is that the distance
between their centers satisfies Fuss’ relation
1
(R + )2 +
1
(R − )2 =
1
r2 .
A beautiful elementary proof of this was given by Salazar (see [8], and quoted at
[1]). According to [9, p.292], this is also a sufficient condition for the existence
of a bicentric quadrilateral. Now if there for two such circles exists one bicentric
quadrilateral, then according to Poncelet’s closure theorem there exists infinitely
many; any point on the circumcircle can be a vertex for one of these bicentric
quadrilaterals [11]. That is the configuration we shall study in this note. We derive
a formula for the area of a bicentric quadrilateral in terms of the inradius, the
circumradius and the angle between the diagonals, conclude for which quadrilateral
the area has its maximum value in terms of the two radii, and show how to construct
that maximal quadrilateral.
2. More on the area of a bicentric quadrilateral
In [4] and [3, §6] we derived a few new formulas for the area of a bicentric
quadrilateral. Here we will prove another area formula using properties of bicentric
quadrilaterals derived by other authors.
Theorem 1. If a bicentric quadrilateral has an incircle and a circumcircle with
radii r and R respectively, then it has the area
K = r r +p4R2 + r2 sin
Publication Date: October 18, 2012. Communicating Editor: Paul Yiu.
238 M. Josefsson
where is the angle between the diagonals.
Proof. We give two different proofs. Both of them uses the formula
K = 1
2pq sin (1)
which gives the area of a convex quadrilateral with diagonals p, q and angle
between them.
bO
b
A
bB
b C
D b p
R
Figure 1. Using the inscribed angle theorem
First proof. In a cyclic quadrilateral it is easy to see that the diagonals satisfy
p = 2RsinB and q = 2RsinA (see Figure 1). Inserting these into (1) we have
that a cyclic quadrilateral has the area 1
K = 2R2 sinAsinB sin . (2)
In [13] Yun proved that in a bicentric quadrilateral ABCD (which he called a
double circle quadrilateral),
sinAsinB =
r2 + rp4R2 + r2
2R2 .
Inserting this into (2) proves the theorem.
Second proof. In [2, pp.249, 271–275] it is proved that the inradius in a bicentric
quadrilateral is given by
r =
pq
2ppq + 4R2
.
Solving for the product of the diagonals gives
pq = 2r r +p4R2 + r2
where we chose the solution of the quadratic equation with the plus sign since
the product of the diagonals is positive. Inserting this into (1) directly yields the
theorem.
1A direct consequence of this formula is the inequality K 2R2 in a cyclic quadrilateral, with
equality if and only if the quadrilateral is a square.
Maximal area of a bicentric quadrilateral 239
Remark. According to [12, p.164], it was Problem 1376 in the journal Crux
Mathematicorum to derive the equation
pq
4r2 −
4R2
pq
= 1
in a bicentric quadrilateral. Solving this also gives the product pq in terms of the
radii r and R.
Corollary 2. If a bicentric quadrilateral has an incircle and a circumcircle with
radii r and R respectively, then its area satisfies
K r r +p4R2 + r2
where there is equality if and only if the quadrilateral is a right kite.
Proof. There is equality if and only if the angle between the diagonals is a right
angle, since sin 1 with equality if and only if =
2 . A tangential quadrilateral
has perpendicular diagonals if and only if it is a kite according to Theorem 2 (i)
and (iii) in [5]. Finally, a kite is cyclic if and only if two opposite angles are right
angles since it has a diagonal that is a line of symmetry and opposite angles in a
cyclic quadrilateral are supplementary angles.
We also have that the semiperimeter of a bicentric quadrilateral satisfies
s r +p4R2 + r2
where there is equality if and only if the quadrilateral is a right kite. This is a direct
consequence of Corollary 2 and the formula K = rs for the area of a tangential
quadrilateral. To derive this inequality was a part of Problem 1203 in Crux Mathematicorum
according to [10, p.39]. Another part of that problem was to prove that
in a bicentric quadrilateral, the product of the sides satisfies
abcd 16
9 r2(4R2 + r2).
It is well known that the left hand side gives the square of the area of a bicentric
quadrilateral (a short proof is given in [4, pp.155–156]). Thus the inequality can
be restated as
K 4
3rp4R2 + r2.
This is a weaker area inequality than the one in Corollary 2, which can be seen in
the following way. An inequality between the two radii of a bicentric quadrilateral
is R
p2r. 2 From this it follows that 4R2 8r2, and so
3r p4R2 + r2.
Hence, from Theorem 1, we have
K
r r +p4R2 + r2 4
3p4R2 + r2
so the expression in Corollary 2 gives a sharper upper bound for the area.
2References to several different proofs of this inequality are given at the end of [6], where we
provided a new proof of an extension to this inequality.
240 M. Josefsson
3. Construction of the maximal bicentric quadrilateral
Given two circles, one within the other, and assuming that a bicentric quadrilateral
exist inscribed in the larger circle and circumscribed around the smaller, then
among the infinitely many such quadrilaterals that are associated with these circles,
Corollary 2 states that the one with maximal area is a right kite. Since a kite
has a diagonal that is a line of symmetry, the construction of this is easy. Draw a
line through the two centers of the circles. It intersect the circumcircle at A and C.
Now all that is left is to construct tangents to the incircle through A. This is done by
constructing the midpoint M between the incenter I and A, and drawing the circle
with center M and radius MI according to [7]. This circle intersect the incircle at
E and F. Draw the tangents AE and AF extended to intersect the circumcircle at
B and D. Finally connect the points ABCD, which is the right kite with maximal
area of all bicentric quadrilaterals associated with the two circles having centers I
and O.
b
I
bO
b
A
b C
bM
F b
b
E
b D
b
B
Figure 2. Construction of the right kite ABCD
References
[1] A. Bogomolny, Fuss’ Theorem, Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles,
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/Fuss.shtml
[2] H. Fukagawa and T. Rothman, Sacred Mathematics, Japanese Temple Geometry, Princeton
university press, 2008.
[3] M. Josefsson, Calculations concerning the tangent lengths and tangency chords of a tangential
quadrilateral, Forum Geom., 10 (2010) 119–130.
[4] M. Josefsson, The area of a bicentric quadrilateral, Forum Geom., 11 (2011) 155–164.
[5] M. Josefsson, When is a tangential quadrilateral a kite?, Forum Geom., 11 (2011) 165–174.
[6] M. Josefsson, A new proof of Yun’s inequality for bicentric quadrilaterals, Forum Geom., 12
(2012) 79–82.
[7] Math Open Reference, Tangents through an external point, 2009,
http://www.mathopenref.com/consttangents.html
[8] J. C. Salazar, Fuss’ theorem, Math. Gazette, 90 (2006) 306–307.
Maximal area of a bicentric quadrilateral 241
[9] M. Saul, Hadamard’s Plane Geometry, A Reader’s Companion, Amer. Math. Society, 2010.
[10] E. Specht, Inequalities proposed in “Crux Mathematicorum”, 2007, available at
http://hydra.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/math4u/ineq.pdf
[11] E. W. Weisstein, Bicentric Polygon, MathWorld – A Wolfram Web Resource, Accessed 22
April 2012, http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BicentricPolygon.html
[12] P. Yiu, Notes on Euclidean Geometry, Florida Atlantic University Lecture Notes, 1998.
[13] Z. Yun, Euler’s inequality revisited, Mathematical Spectrum, 40 (2008) 119–121.
Martin Josefsson: V¨astergatan 25d, 285 37 Markaryd, Sweden
E-mail address: martin.markaryd@hotmail.com