Oh the good ole days of Gyroscopes
By Stephanie Britt
A tangent circle is a circle that has one and only one intersection with another circle. Such as the examples below.
or 
Creating two circles that are tangent to another is the more difficult task.
(must have geometry sketch pad to view)Tangent Circles 1
Now we see the creation of two types of tangent circle. Now let's explore some random points along one of the circles.
If we consider tracing one randome point that is on the tangent circle what will be created?
Tracing of one point on tangent circle
You can see that the trace creates an ellipse that is tangent to both circles as well.
What will a trace of 2 points on the tangent circle look like?
Tracing of two points on a tangent circle
The tracing of two points creates two tangent ellipses. This is a possible pattern for all random points taken from the tangent circle. Explore other possibilities with a tangent script.