A circumcircle is a circle that passes through each vertex of a triangle.

In Euclidean Geometry,
all triangles have a unique circumcircle (Thompson, p.2). A circumcircle is a circle centered at
the circumcenter of the triangle (the intersection point of all perpendicular bisectors of each
triangle side) and has a radius that is the distance from the circumcenter to any vertex of the
triangle. However, this is not the case for taxicab geometry.

According to Thompson, the Triangle Circumcircle Theorem states: a triangle has a taxicab
circumcircle if and only if it is an inscribed triangle (p. 2).

*For information on what it means to be an inscribed triangle, please visit our page on inscribed angles and inscribed
triangles*
http://emat6000taxicab.weebly.com/inscribed-angles.html
http://emat6000taxicab.weebly.com/inscribed-triangles.html




Even if the triangle has a circumcircle, the definition is a little different in Taxicab Geometry. The
circle is still centered at the circumcircle. However, since the perpendicular bisectors are no
longer straight lines in Taxicab geometry, the Taxi-Circumcenter is located in a different location
than the Euclidean-Circumcenter.



The radius of the taxi-circumcircle is not, as you would think, the taxi-distance from the
circumcenter to any vertex on the triangle. For more information about what the distance of this
radius would be, and how to find it, refer to the following link:
http://master.grad.hr/hdgg/kog_stranica/kog16/03-12.pdf

Its important to note that when a circumcircle exists, it is not necessarily unique. If one side of
the triangle has a slope of +1 or -1, then the triangle will have infinite circumcircles. Consider the
figure below.




The slope of BC is -1, so this triangle falls into our special case. The black path is the
perpendicular bisector of AB, the green path is the perpendicular bisector of AC, and the red
paths as well as the red shaded regions are the perpendicular bisectors of BC. Notice that the
green and black paths intersect, and the area where they intersect falls into the red shaded
region. Hence, at this point, there is no longer a single point - the circumcenter - where the
perpendicular bisectors intersect, but now there are an infinite amount of possible
circumcenters, as long as they fall upon this intersected area.

Since there are an infinite amount of circumcenters, this implies there are an infinite amount of
circumcircles.