Geometry
View Activity ArchivesActivity:
From the Center of the Polygon
Posted on Jan 21, 2010
Topic: Polygons
Students explore the area of a regular polygon in terms of the apothem and the perimeter and derive the formula for a regular pentagon and regular hexagon.
State Standards AlignmentDownloads
Select Teacher or Student files from the drop down menu. Click on the file type you want to download.
Downloaded: 7219
Activity Key Steps:
In this activity, students will investigate the formula for finding the area of a regular polygon given the length of the apothem and the perimeter. First, students will look at a regular pentagon.
Next, students will investigate a regular hexagon and derive the formula for the area of a regular hexagon.
Then, in Problem 3, students will apply what they learned in Problems 1 and 2 to discover the area of a regular polygon in general using a decagon and the triangles created by the radii of the decagon.
Finally, students will apply what they have learned to answer questions about the area of regular polygons using the formula they derived in Problem 3.