Mathematics 7

Identifying Geometric
Shapes
POLYGONS
What is a polygon?
 POLYGON  is a closed figure made up of
three or more line segments joined at
their endpoints.
 it came from the Greek words
poly, which means “many” and gonia,
which means “angles”.
 each polygon is a closed figure
in a plane formed by segments (called
sides) that satisfies the following
conditions:
 i) Each side intersects exactly two other
sides, one at each endpoint.
ii) No two sides with a common endpoint
are collinear
Examples of polygons:
 Examples of non-polygon:

Figure 1
 side

vertex

angle
Polygons are classified according to their number of
sides. Common names are listed below:
Name of Number of Number of No. of vertices
Polygon sides angles

Triangle 3 3 3

Quadrilateral 4 4 4

Pentagon 5 5 5

Hexagon 6 6 6

Heptagon 7 7 7

Octagon 8 8 8

Nonagon 9 9 9

Decagon 10 10 10
 Polygons are also classified as
convex or concave.
 A polygon is convex if all segments
joining any two points of the polygon lie
completely inside the polygon or on the
polygon and all the interior angles are less
than 1800
Ex:
 A polygon is concave if all the segments
joining any two points of the polygons lie
completely outside the polygon
 A convex polygon is regular if all the
sides are congruent and all the angles are
congruent.
 If all the sides are congruent, the polygon
is called equilateral.
 If all the angles are congruent, it is called
equiangular.

Equilateral Equiangular Regular

 In naming a polygon, start with any vertex
and list consecutive vertices in order. The
polygon below can be named as polygon
PQRST or TSRQP. Can you give other
names for this polygon?
P Points P and Q are
T
called consecutive
Q vertices.
ST and SR are called
consecutive sides.
<T and <P are called
S consecutive angles.
R
  In the study of a regular polygon, there
are three angles of interest:
* vertex angle
* central angle
* exterior angle
In the figure at the left,
FRIEND is a regular
F R
hexagon, where S is the
center of the polygon, <F,
<D, <N, <NEI, <RIE, and
D <FRI are the interior or the
I K vertex angles, <RSI is a
central angle, and <IEK is
an exterior angle.
N E
1) VERTEX ANGLE  is an angle formed by
two consecutive sides.

2) CENTRAL ANGLEis an angle formed by

the segments joining consecutive vertices
to the center of a regular polygon.

3) EXTERIOR ANGLE is an angle formed

by a side and an extension on an adjacent
side.
 A regular polygon has equal sides and
equal angles.
 An irregular polygon is a polygon whose
sides are not all the same length. A circle
is not a polygon because it does not have
straight line segments.
The following table gives the names of some polygons and examples of
regular polygons and irregular polygons:
 A diagonal of a polygon is a segment
joining two nonconsecutive vertices of the
polygon

A triangle has no A quadrilateral has

diagonals
two diagonals
Polygons are classified according to their number of
sides. Common names are listed below:
Name of Number of Number of No. of No. of
Polygon sides angles vertices diagonals

Triangle 3 3 3 0

Quadrilateral 4 4 4 2

Pentagon 5 5 5 5

Hexagon 6 6 6 9

Heptagon 7 7 7 14

Octagon 8 8 8 20

Nonagon 9 9 9 27

Decagon 10 10 10 35
Identify each given part of the regular polygon
ABCDEFGH below.
a) I B C
b) <BIC
A D
c) D
d) <BAH
H
e) HG
f) <EFJ G
F J
g) GD
h) Is the polygon convex or concave?
i) How many sides does the polygon have?
j) How many possible diagonals can be
drawn in the polygon? Draw a figure
showing all the diagonals.
k) How many diagonals can be drawn from
vertex H only? Draw a figure showing all
the diagonals.
Examples:
Ex:
 ASSIGNMENT
Complete the table by writing the total number of diagonals each
polygon has. Look at the pattern formed by the numbers in the
table. Then, find the total number of diagonals in a 20-gon, 38-gon,
and 100-gon.
POLYGON No. of Sides Total No. of Diagonals
Hexagon
Heptagon
Octagon
Nonagon
Decagon
Undecagon
Dodecagon
13-gon
14-gon
15-gon