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Areas of spherical and hyperbolic triangles in terms of their midpoints

Differential Geometry 2013-07-10 v1

Abstract

Let MM be either the 2-sphere \SS2\RR3\SS^2 \subset\RR^3 or the hyperbolic plane \HH2\RR3\HH^2 \subset \RR^3. If Δ(abc)\Delta(abc) is a geodesic triangle on MM with corners at a,b,cMa,b,c\in M, we denote by α,β,γM\alpha, \beta, \gamma\in M the midpoints of their sides. If Ω\Omega denotes the oriented area of this triangle on MM, it satisfies the relations: sin(Ω/2)=\Det3(abc)2(1+\scalarab)(1+\scalarbc)(1+\scalarca)=\Det3(αβγ) \sin(\Omega/2) = \frac{\Det_3(abc)}{\sqrt{2(1 + \scalar{a}b)(1 + \scalar{b}c)(1 + \scalar{c}a)}} = \Det_3(\alpha\beta\gamma) \, where \scalar{\}{\} denotes the Euclidean scalar product for M=\SS2M=\SS^2 and the Lorentzian scalar product for M=\HH2M=\HH^2. On the hyperbolic plane one should always take the solution with \moduΩ/2<π/2\modu{\Omega/2}<\pi/2. On the sphere, singular cases excepted, a straightforward procedure tells us which solution of this equation is the correct one.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.2567,
  title  = {Areas of spherical and hyperbolic triangles in terms of their midpoints},
  author = {Gijs M. Tuynman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.2567},
  year   = {2013}
}

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11 pages