Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Circumscribed

I tutor a couple of teenagers in Geometry. Today, we were working on Inscribed and Circumscribed Triangles.

A circle that circumscribes a triangle is a circle containing the triangle such that the vertices of the triangle are on the circle.

A circle that inscribes a triangle is a circle contained in the triangle that just touches the sides of the triangle.

The problems we were working on asked the student to determine if the circle circumscribed or inscribed the triangle. But what she so shyly pointed out, I kept saying circumcised.

We both had a good laugh about that. I had no idea I was saying it, but to a 17 year old, that topic can be embarrassing even when you had no intention of discussing it.

3 comments:

Christy said...

When I read the title of your post, in my head I pronounced it the same way. I couldn't understand how a triangle could be circumcised, so I had to come read about it. :)

sweetsong32 said...

oh my gosh...that is too funny!!!!

Mary said...

Happened again when I met with my second student the next night. We all had a good laugh.

Post a Comment

 
;