Wolfram Demonstrations Project

The minimal enclosing circle is the smallest circle that completely contains a set of points. Formally, given a set

points in the plane, find the circle

of smallest radius such that all points in

are contained in the interior or boundary of

Snapshot 1: state the problem with a set of

random points in the plane

Snapshot 2: find the minimal enclosing circle with two points on its boundary

Snapshot 3: find the minimal enclosing circle with three points on its boundary

Contributed by: Frederick Wu

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Minimal Enclosing Circle