Antiparallel (mathematics)
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In geometry, antiparallel lines (or anti-parallel lines) can be defined with respect to either lines or angles.
Definitions[]
Given two lines and , lines and are antiparallel with respect to and if , as shown in Fig.1. If and are antiparallel with respect to and , then and are also antiparallel with respect to and .
In any quadrilateral inscribed in a circle, any two opposite sides are antiparallel with respect to the other two sides (Fig.2).
Two lines and are antiparallel with respect to the sides of an angle if and only if they make the same angle in the opposite senses with the bisector of that angle (Fig.3).
![]() Fig.1: Given two lines and , lines and are antiparallel with respect to and if . |
![]() Fig.2: In any quadrilateral inscribed in a circle, any two opposite sides are antiparallel with respect to the other two sides. |
![]() Fig.3: Two lines and are said to be antiparallel with respect to the sides of an angle if they make the same angle in the opposite senses with the bisector of that angle. Notice that our previous angles 1 and 2 are still equivalent. |
![]() Fig.4: If the lines and coincide, and are said to be antiparallel with respect to a straight line. |
Antiparallel vectors[]
In a Euclidean space, two directed line segments, often called vectors in applied mathematics, are antiparallel if they are supported by parallel lines and have opposite directions.[1] In that case, one of the associated Euclidean vectors is the product of the other by a negative number.
Relations[]
- The line joining the feet to two altitudes of a triangle is antiparallel to the third side. (any cevians which 'see' the third side with the same angle create antiparallel lines)
- The tangent to a triangle's circumcircle at a vertex is antiparallel to the opposite side.
- The radius of the circumcircle at a vertex is perpendicular to all lines antiparallel to the opposite sides.
References[]
- ^ Harris, John; Harris, John W.; Stöcker, Horst (1998). Handbook of mathematics and computational science. Birkhäuser. p. 332. ISBN 0-387-94746-9., Chapter 6, p. 332
Sources[]
- A.B. Ivanov, Encyclopaedia of Mathematics - ISBN 1-4020-0609-8
- Weisstein, Eric W. "Antiparallel." From MathWorld—A Wolfram Web Resource. [1]
- Elementary geometry