How to find the center of a circle given two tangent lines and radius using MATLAB?

How to find the center of a circle given two tangent lines and radius using MATLAB?

[Rik]

For mathematical questions like this, it is usually best to solve this algebraically first and then implement that in Matlab.

Answer 1

[James Tursa]

Find the line bisecting the two tangent lines. This line will contain the center point of the circle. Form a right triangle with one of the tangent lines as a leg, the radius line as the other leg, and the bisecting line as the hypotenuse. You know the angle where the two tangent lines cross, so the angle in the triangle at that point is 1/2 that. Then simple trig will give you the lengths of the triangle hypotenuse and tangent line leg. That can be used to calculate the circle center.