Isosceles triangle the hypotenuse to the right-angled vertex) divides the right triangle into two isosceles triangles. This is because the midpoint of the hypotenuse is the center of the circumcircle of the right triangle, and each of the two triangles created by the partition has two equal radii as two of its sides. Similarly, an acute triangle can be partitioned into three isosceles triangles by segments from its circumcenter, but this method does not work for obtuse triangles, because the circumcenter lies outside the triangle. Generalizing the partition of an acute triangle, any cyclic polygon that contains the center of its circumscribed
Altitude (triangle) "dropping the altitude" at that vertex. It is a special case of orthogonal projection. Altitudes can be used in the computation of the area of a triangle: one half of the product of an altitude's length and its base's length equals the triangle's area. Thus, the longest altitude is perpendicular to the shortest side of the triangle. The altitudes are also related to the sides of the triangle through the trigonometric functions. In an isosceles triangle (a triangle with two congruent sides), the altitude having the incongruent side as its base will have the midpoint of that side as its