NCERT Solutions for Class 9th Maths Chapter 5 Think, Draw and Infer — How Many Circles?

Book page 98 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.
A, B and C are three collinear points. Can you find a point P such that PA = PB = PC ? What can you say about the perpendicular bisectors of AB and BC? Draw and check. Can you show that for three collinear points A, B and C, the perpendicular bisector of AB and BC are parallel? Is it possible for a circle to pass through collinear points? Can you draw a line that cuts a given circle in three distinct points?
Answer

Answers in order: no such P exists; the two perpendicular bisectors are parallel; no circle passes through three collinear points; and no line cuts a circle in three points. All four are the same fact seen from different sides.

The perpendicular bisectors are parallel. Let A, B, C lie on a line ℓ, with midpoints M of AB and N of BC. The perpendicular bisector of AB is the line through M perpendicular to ℓ; the perpendicular bisector of BC is the line through N perpendicular to ℓ. Two lines perpendicular to the same line are parallel. Since M ≠ N (the points are distinct), these are two distinct parallel lines, so they never meet.

P with PA = PB ⇒ P on the ⊥ bisector of AB
P with PB = PC ⇒ P on the ⊥ bisector of BC
These two lines are parallel and distinct ⇒ no common pointno such P
A B C ⊥ bis. AB ⊥ bis. BC
Both bisectors stand at right angles to the same line, so they are parallel and never meet — there is no circumcentre.

No circle through collinear points: a circle needs a centre equidistant from all three, i.e. exactly the point P we have just shown cannot exist.

No line cuts a circle in three points: if a line met a circle at three points, those three points would be collinear and concyclic — impossible by the previous line. A line meets a circle in 0, 1 or at most 2 points.

Why it happens: going from two points to three is what makes a circle unique — but only if the third point steps off the line. Collinearity is exactly the degenerate case where the third condition adds nothing new and the construction collapses.
Q2.
The circumcircle of a given ΔABC is drawn. Can there be other triangles congruent to ΔABC that share the same circumcircle?
Answer

Yes — infinitely many.

Why it happens: a circle has complete rotational symmetry about its centre. Rotate ΔABC about the circumcentre O through any angle θ. Distances from O do not change, so the three image vertices A′, B′, C′ still lie on the same circle, and every side length is preserved — so ΔA′B′C′ ≅ ΔABC and it has the same circumcircle. Since θ can be any of infinitely many angles, there are infinitely many such triangles.

There is a second family too: reflect ΔABC in any diameter. The circle maps to itself and the triangle maps to a congruent (mirror-image) triangle inscribed in it.

O
Rotating an inscribed triangle about O gives a congruent triangle in the same circle.
Tip: the uniqueness in Theorem 1 runs the other way. Fix the three points and the circle is unique. Fix the circle and there are endlessly many congruent triangles inscribed in it.
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