Mathematics for
Engineers 2
POLYGONS
What is Polygon?
A polygon is a plane shape with straight sides.
Polygons are 2-dimensional shapes. They are made of straight lines, and
the shape is "closed" (all the lines connect up).
Polygon comes from Greek. Poly- means "many" and -gon means "angle".
Types of Polygons
Polygons can be Regular or Irregular.
A regular polygon has all angles equal and all sides equal, otherwise it
is irregular
Concave or Convex Polygon
A convex polygon has no angles pointing inwards. More precisely, no
internal angle can be more than 180°.
If any internal angle is greater than 180° then the polygon is concave.
(Think: concave has a "cave" in it)
Simple or Complex
A simple polygon has only one boundary, and it doesn't cross over
itself. A complex polygon intersects itself! Many rules about polygons
don't work when it is complex.
Names of Polygons
Name : Triangle Name : Quadrilateral
Sides :3 Sides :4
Interior Angle: 60° Interior Angle: 90°
Names of Polygons
Name : Pentagon Name : Hexagon
Sides :5 Sides :6
Interior Angle: 108° Interior Angle: 120°
Names of Polygons
Name : Heptagon Name : Octagon
Sides :7 Sides :8
Interior Angle: 128.571° Interior Angle: 135°
Names of Polygons
Name : Nonagon Name : Decagon
Sides :9 Sides : 10
Interior Angle: 140° Interior Angle: 144°
Names of Polygons
Names of Polygons
You can make names using this method:
Sum of Interior Angles
The sum of the measures of the interior angles of a polygon
with n sides is:
Sum of Interior Angle = (n – 2)180°
Example: Find the sum of interior angle of Hexagon
Sum of Interior Angle = (n – 2)180°
= (6 – 2)180°
= 720°
Interior Angles of each vertices
The Interior Angle and Exterior Angle are measured from the same line,
so they add up to 180°.
which can be rearranged like this:
Interior Angle =
=
=
So we also have this:
Interior Angle = =
Example: What is the interior angle of a regular octagon?
A regular octagon has 8 sides, so:
Exterior Angle = 360° / 8 = 45°
Interior Angle = 180° − 45° = 135°
Or we could use:
Interior Angle =
=
=
= 135°
Sum of Exterior Angles
If you count one exterior angle at each vertex, the sum of the
measures of the exterior angles of a polygon is always 360°.
The measure of each exterior angle of a n-gon is
Example: What is the exterior angle of a
regular octagon?
An octagon has 8 sides, so:
Exterior angle =360° / n
=360° / 8
=45°
Circumcircle, Incircle, Radius
and Apothem
Sounds quite musical if you repeat it a few times, but they are just the names of the
"outer" and "inner" circles (and each radius) that can be drawn on a polygon like this:
The "outside" circle is called a circumcircle, and it
connects all vertices (corner points) of the polygon.
The radius of the circumcircle is also the radius of the
polygon.
The "inside" circle is called an incircle and it just touches
each side of the polygon at its midpoint.
The radius of the incircle is the apothem of the polygon.
(Not all polygons have those properties, but triangles
and regular polygons do).
Breaking into Triangles
We can learn a lot about regular polygons by breaking them into triangles like this:
Notice that:
the "base" of the triangle is one side of the polygon.
the "height" of the triangle is the "Apothem" of the polygon
Now, the area of a triangle is half of the base times height, so:
Area of one triangle =
To get the area of the whole polygon, just add up the areas of all
the little triangles ("n" of them):
Area of Polygon =
And since the perimeter is all the sides = n × side, we get:
Area of Polygon =
A Smaller Triangle
By cutting the triangle in half we get this:
(Note: The angles are in radians, not degrees)
The small triangle is right-angled and so we can use sine, cosine and
tangent to find how the side, radius, apothem and n (number of sides)
are related:
Example: Find the area of the regular pentagon shown below.
In the regular pentagon,
Apothem = 15 units
Pentagon has 5 sides. So, the perimeter is
P = side length ⋅ no. of sides
P = 18 ⋅ 5
P = 90 units
The formula for area of a n-gon is given by
A = 1/2 ⋅ apothem ⋅ perimeter of polygon
Substitute.
A = 1/2 ⋅ 15 ⋅ 90
Simplify.
A = 675
Hence, the area of the regular pentagon is 675 square units.
Activity 5
Answer the following question
1. What do we call a six-sided polygon?
2. What do we call an eleven-sided polygon?
3. What describes the polygon in the diagram?
4. What describes the polygon in the diagram?
5. The diagram shows two adjacent sides of a regular polygon. What is the name
of the polygon?
6. The diagram shows two adjacent sides of a regular polygon. What is
the name of the polygon?
7. What is the sum of the interior angles of a regular nonagon?
8. What is the sum of the interior angles of a regular pentadecagon
(which has 15 sides)?
9. The diagram shows a complex pentagon. However, although it's
complex, it is symmetrical (all its sides and angles are equal). It is
known as a Pentagram or a 5-pointed star. What is the size of the angle
at each of the points A, C, E, G and I?
10. What is the size of the angle at each vertex of the regular 9-pointed
star?
(Hint: an interior angle of a regular nonagon is 140°)