SIMILARITY

OF POLYGONS
 Similarity of Polygons

Similar Polygons
Two polygons P and Q are similar
if their corresponding angles are
congruent and their corresponding
sides are proportional.
In symbols, we write P ~ Q,
read as “P is similar to Q”.

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 Similarity of Polygons

Resized version Resized and rotated

of square A version of square A

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 Similarity of Polygons
Consider the pentagon ABCDE and pentagon FGHIJ below.

Corresponding angles are congruent.

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 Similarity of Polygons
Consider the pentagon ABCDE and pentagon FGHIJ below.

The ratios of the corresponding sides are all equal.

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 Similarity of Polygons
Consider the pentagon ABCDE and pentagon FGHIJ below.

Hence, the corresponding sides are proportional. Thus,

ABCDE ~ FGHIJ.

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 Similarity of Polygons
Example: Determine whether the pair of figures is similar.
Justify your answer.

a.

A rectangle and a triangle cannot be similar to each

other because they have different number of angles
and different number of sides.

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 Similarity of Polygons
Example: Determine whether the pair of figures is similar.
Justify your answer.

b.

Since the ratios of the measures of the

corresponding sides are not equal, the corresponding
sides are not proportional. Thus, the given
rectangles are not similar.
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 Similarity of Polygons
Example: Determine whether the pair of figures is similar.
Justify your answer.

c.

The ratios of the measures of corresponding sides

are equal.
Thus, ∆ABC and ∆DFE are similar.

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 Similarity of Polygons
Example: The quadrilaterals ABCD is similar to quadrilateral WXYZ.
a. Find x, y, and the length
of WX.

Solve for x

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 Similarity of Polygons
Example: The quadrilaterals ABCD is similar to quadrilateral WXYZ.
a. Find x, y, and the length
of WX.

Solve for y

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 Similarity of Polygons
Example: The quadrilaterals ABCD is similar to quadrilateral WXYZ.
a. Find x, y, and the length
of WX.

Find the length of WX

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 Similarity of Polygons
Example: The quadrilaterals ABCD is similar to quadrilateral WXYZ.
b. Find the scale factor of
the polygon WXYZ to the
polygon ABCD.

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 Similarity of Polygons
Exercise: Determine whether each pair of figures is similar. Justify
your answer.
a. b. c.

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 Similarity of Polygons
Exercise: The pentagon ABCDE is similar to the pentagon JKLMN.

a. Find the measures of the angles and sides of each pentagon.

b. Find the scale factor of the pentagon ABCDE to the pentagon
JKLMN.

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