SOME PICTURE OF POLYGON

DEFINITION OF POLYGON
For other uses, see Polygon (disambiguation).

Some polygons of different kinds

In geometry a polygon (pron.: /pln/) is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain or circuit. A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by aclosed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments (i.e., by a closed polygonal chain). These segments are called its edges or sides, and the points where two edges meet are the polygon's vertices (singular: vertex) or corners. An n-gon is a polygon with n sides. The interior of the polygon is sometimes called its body. A polygon is a 2-dimensional example of the more general polytope in any number of dimensions. The word "polygon" derives from the Greek (pols) "much", "many" and (gna) "corner", "angle", or (gnu) "knee".[1] The basic geometrical notion has been adapted in various ways to suit particular purposes. Mathematicians are often concerned only with the closed polygonal chain and with simple polygons which do not self-intersect, and may define a polygon accordingly. Geometrically two edges meeting at a corner are required to form an angle that is not straight (180);

otherwise, the line segments will be considered parts of a single edge; however mathematically, such corners may sometimes be allowed. In fields relating to computation, the term polygon has taken on a slightly altered meaning derived from the way the shape is stored and manipulated incomputer graphics (image generation). Some other generalizations of polygons are described below.

HISTORY OF POLYGON

polygons have been known since ancient times. The regular polygons were known to the ancient Greeks, and the pentagram, a non-convex regular polygon (star polygon), appears on the vase of Aristophonus, Caere, dated to the 7th century B.C.[citation needed] Non-convex polygons in general were not systematically studied until the 14th century by Thomas Bradwardine.[22] In 1952, Geoffrey Colin Shephard generalized the idea of polygons to the complex plane, where each real dimension is accompanied by an imaginary one, to create complex polygons.[23]

METHOD OF FINDING THE AREA OF A TRIANGLE

The basic formula:

The trigonometry based formula: Given: two sides and the included angle

Given: base and altitude to that base

There is an additional formula, called Heron's formula, that will let you determine the area of a triangle given the lengths of the three sides. (This formula is often called "Hero's Formula".)

Heron's formula: where

Given: the three sides

(s is called the semiperimeter, or half the triangle's perimeter)

There is also another trigonometric formula. If two angles and a side are known, the area can be found by using the formula stated below. The third missing angle is calculated before the formula is used.

Given: two angles and a side