Find the circumcentre of the triangle whose vertices are (−2, −3), (−1, 0), (7, −6).
The distance $d$ between two points $\left(x_{1}, y_{1}\right)$ and $\left(x_{2}, y_{2}\right)$ is given by the formula
$d=\sqrt{\left(x_{1}-x_{2}\right)^{2}+\left(y_{1}-y_{2}\right)^{2}}$
The circumcentre of a triangle is the point which is equidistant from each of the three vertices of the triangle.
Here the three vertices of the triangle are given to be A(−2.−3), B(−1,0) and C(7,−6).
Let the circumcentre of the triangle be represented by the point R(x, y).
So we have $A R=B R=C R$
$A R=\sqrt{(-2-x)^{2}+(-3-y)^{2}}$
$B R=\sqrt{(-1-x)^{2}+(-y)^{2}}$
$C R=\sqrt{(7-x)^{2}+(-6-y)^{2}}$
Equating the first pair of these equations we have,
$A R=B R$
$\sqrt{(-2-x)^{2}+(-3-y)^{2}}=\sqrt{(-1-x)^{2}+(-y)^{2}}$
Squaring on both sides of the equation we have,
$(-2-x)^{2}+(-3-y)^{2}=(-1-x)^{2}+(-y)^{2}$
$4+x^{2}+4 x+9+y^{2}+6 y=1+x^{2}+2 x+y^{2}$
$2 x+6 y=-12$
$x+3 y=-6$
Equating another pair of the equations we have,
$A R=C R$
$\sqrt{(-2-x)^{2}+(-3-y)^{2}}=\sqrt{(7-x)^{2}+(-6-y)^{2}}$
Squaring on both sides of the equation we have,
$(-2-x)^{2}+(-3-y)^{2}=(7-x)^{2}+(-6-y)^{2}$
$4+x^{2}+4 x+9+y^{2}+6 y=49+x^{2}-14 x+36+y^{2}+12 y$
$18 x-6 y=72$
$3 x-y=12$
Now we have two equations for ‘x’ and ‘y’, which are
$x+3 y=-6$
$3 x-y=12$
From the second equation we have. Substituting this value of ‘y’ in the first equation we have,
$x+3(3 x-12)=-6$
$x+9 x-36=-6$
$10 x=30$
$x=3$
Therefore the value of ‘y’ is,
$y=3 x-12$
$y=3 x-12$
$y=-3$
Hence the co-ordinates of the circumcentre of the triangle with the given vertices are $(3,-3)$.