Inscribed, circumscribed and escribed figures

When a shape fits perfectly inside another shape with all its corners touching the outer shape, we call it inscribed. Think of a square drawn inside a circle where all four corners just touch the circle's edge. A circumscribed figure is the opposite—it's the outer shape surrounding an inner shape, like a circle drawn around a triangle so it touches all three sides of the triangle. An escribed figure (or excircle) is a circle drawn outside a triangle, touching one side of the triangle and the extensions of the other two sides.

A practical Nigerian example is traditional Adire cloth patterns where geometric shapes fit perfectly within each other. These constructions appear regularly in WAEC exams because they test your understanding of geometric relationships and precision.