Open AccessDistance Product Cubics
Author(s) -
Boris Odehnal
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
kog/kog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1846-4068
pISSN - 1331-1611
DOI - 10.31896/k.24.3
Subject(s) - mathematics , inflection point , product (mathematics) , combinatorics , isosceles triangle , incircle and excircles of a triangle , euclidean geometry , centroid , geometry , pure mathematics , mathematical analysis
The locus of points that determine a constant product of their distances to the sides of a triangle is a cubic curve in the projectively closed Euclidean triangle plane. In this paper, algebraic and geometric properties of these distance product cubics shall be studied. These cubics span a pencil of cubics that contains only one rational and non-degenerate cubic curve which is known as the Bataille acnodal cubic determined by the product of the actual trilinear coordinates of the centroid of the base triangle. Each triangle center defines a distance product cubic. It turns out that only a small number of triangle centers share their distance product cubic with other centers. All distance product cubics share the real points of inflection which lie on the line at infinity. The cubics' dual curves, their Hessians, and especially those distance product cubics that are defined by particular triangle centers shall be studied.