Apothem

Last updated
Apothem of a hexagon Apothem of hexagon.svg
Apothem of a hexagon
Graphs of side, s; apothem, a; and area, A of regular polygons of n sides and circumradius 1, with the base, b of a rectangle with the same area. The green line shows the case n = 6. Regular polygon side count graph.svg
Graphs of side,s; apothem,a; and area,A of regular polygons of n sides and circumradius 1, with the base,b of a rectangle with the same area. The green line shows the case n = 6 .

The apothem (sometimes abbreviated as apo [1] ) of a regular polygon is a line segment from the center to the midpoint of one of its sides. Equivalently, it is the line drawn from the center of the polygon that is perpendicular to one of its sides. The word "apothem" can also refer to the length of that line segment and come from the ancient Greek ἀπόθεμα ("put away, put aside"), made of ἀπό ("off, away") and θέμα ("that which is laid down"), indicating a generic line written down. [2] Regular polygons are the only polygons that have apothems. Because of this, all the apothems in a polygon will be congruent.

Contents

For an equilateral triangle, the apothem is equivalent to the line segment from the midpoint of a side to the triangle's center. [note 1]

Properties of apothems

The apothem a can be used to find the area of any regular n-sided polygon of side length s according to the following formula, which also states that the area is equal to the apothem multiplied by half the perimeter since ns = p.

This formula can be derived by partitioning the n-sided polygon into n congruent isosceles triangles, and then noting that the apothem is the height of each triangle, and that the area of a triangle equals half the base times the height. The following formulations are all equivalent:

An apothem of a regular polygon will always be a radius of the inscribed circle. It is also the minimum distance between any side of the polygon and its center.

This property can also be used to easily derive the formula for the area of a circle, because as the number of sides approaches infinity, the regular polygon's area approaches the area of the inscribed circle of radius r = a.

Finding the apothem

The apothem of a regular polygon can be found multiple ways.

The apothem a of a regular n-sided polygon with side length s, or circumradius R, can be found using the following formula:

The apothem can also be found by

These formulae can still be used even if only the perimeter p and the number of sides n are known because s = p/n.

Notes

  1. Equilateral triangles have only one triangle center, which is what makes this definition of the apothem of an equilateral triangle well-defined. For non-equilateral triangles however, there are many non-coinciding notions of triangle center; see Triangle center for details.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area</span> Size of a two-dimensional surface

Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or plane area refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while surface area refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-dimensional object. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat. It is the two-dimensional analogue of the length of a curve or the volume of a solid . Two different regions may have the same area ; by synecdoche, "area" sometimes is used to refer to the region, as in a "polygonal area".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antiprism</span> Polyhedron with parallel bases connected by triangles

In geometry, an n-gonal antiprism or n-antiprism is a polyhedron composed of two parallel direct copies of an n-sided polygon, connected by an alternating band of 2n triangles. They are represented by the Conway notation An.

In geometry, a polygon is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain.

A perimeter is a closed path that encompasses, surrounds, or outlines either a two dimensional shape or a one-dimensional length. The perimeter of a circle or an ellipse is called its circumference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexagon</span> Shape with six sides

In geometry, a hexagon is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equilateral triangle</span> Shape with three equal sides

In geometry, an equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length. In the familiar Euclidean geometry, an equilateral triangle is also equiangular; that is, all three internal angles are also congruent to each other and are each 60°. It is also a regular polygon, so it is also referred to as a regular triangle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclic quadrilateral</span> Quadrilateral whose vertices can all fall on a single circle

In Euclidean geometry, a cyclic quadrilateral or inscribed quadrilateral is a quadrilateral whose vertices all lie on a single circle. This circle is called the circumcircle or circumscribed circle, and the vertices are said to be concyclic. The center of the circle and its radius are called the circumcenter and the circumradius respectively. Other names for these quadrilaterals are concyclic quadrilateral and chordal quadrilateral, the latter since the sides of the quadrilateral are chords of the circumcircle. Usually the quadrilateral is assumed to be convex, but there are also crossed cyclic quadrilaterals. The formulas and properties given below are valid in the convex case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Octagon</span> Polygon shape with eight sides

In geometry, an octagon is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decagon</span> Shape with ten sides

In geometry, a decagon is a ten-sided polygon or 10-gon. The total sum of the interior angles of a simple decagon is 1440°.

In Euclidean geometry, a regular polygon is a polygon that is direct equiangular and equilateral. Regular polygons may be either convex, star or skew. In the limit, a sequence of regular polygons with an increasing number of sides approximates a circle, if the perimeter or area is fixed, or a regular apeirogon, if the edge length is fixed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heptagon</span> Shape with seven sides

In geometry, a heptagon or septagon is a seven-sided polygon or 7-gon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circular segment</span> Slice of a circle cut perpendicular to the radius

In geometry, a circular segment, also known as a disk segment, is a region of a disk which is "cut off" from the rest of the disk by a secant or a chord. More formally, a circular segment is a region of two-dimensional space that is bounded by a circular arc and by the circular chord connecting the endpoints of the arc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dodecagon</span> Polygon with 12 edges

In geometry, a dodecagon, or 12-gon, is any twelve-sided polygon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spherical trigonometry</span> Geometry of figures on the surface of a sphere

Spherical trigonometry is the branch of spherical geometry that deals with the metrical relationships between the sides and angles of spherical triangles, traditionally expressed using trigonometric functions. On the sphere, geodesics are great circles. Spherical trigonometry is of great importance for calculations in astronomy, geodesy, and navigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Square</span> Regular quadrilateral

In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles. It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adjacent sides. It is the only regular polygon whose internal angle, central angle, and external angle are all equal (90°), and whose diagonals are all equal in length. A square with vertices ABCD would be denoted ABCD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cupola (geometry)</span> Solid made by joining an n- and 2n-gon with triangles and squares

In geometry, a cupola is a solid formed by joining two polygons, one with twice as many edges as the other, by an alternating band of isosceles triangles and rectangles. If the triangles are equilateral and the rectangles are squares, while the base and its opposite face are regular polygons, the triangular, square, and pentagonal cupolae all count among the Johnson solids, and can be formed by taking sections of the cuboctahedron, rhombicuboctahedron, and rhombicosidodecahedron, respectively.

In geometry, the semiperimeter of a polygon is half its perimeter. Although it has such a simple derivation from the perimeter, the semiperimeter appears frequently enough in formulas for triangles and other figures that it is given a separate name. When the semiperimeter occurs as part of a formula, it is typically denoted by the letter s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyperbolic triangle</span> Triangle in hyperbolic geometry

In hyperbolic geometry, a hyperbolic triangle is a triangle in the hyperbolic plane. It consists of three line segments called sides or edges and three points called angles or vertices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bicentric polygon</span>

In geometry, a bicentric polygon is a tangential polygon which is also cyclic — that is, inscribed in an outer circle that passes through each vertex of the polygon. All triangles and all regular polygons are bicentric. On the other hand, a rectangle with unequal sides is not bicentric, because no circle can be tangent to all four sides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentagon</span> Shape with five sides

In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°.

References

  1. Shaneyfelt, Ted V. "德博士的 Notes About Circles, ज्य, & कोज्य: What in the world is a hacovercosine?". Hilo, Hawaii: University of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  2. "Definition of APOTHEM". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2022-02-17.