Area of Polygons | IT

Question 15

Can any polygon be divided into triangles?

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Solution

The interior of any polygon can always be split into smaller triangles.

Step 1 — Understanding Polygons and Triangles

A polygon is a flat, closed shape. It has straight sides. A triangle is a special polygon. It has exactly three sides. When we "divide a polygon into triangles," we mean filling its inside completely. The smaller triangles must not overlap. They must cover the entire polygon.

Diagram 1

Step 2 — Dividing Convex Polygons

A convex polygon has no "dents." All its internal angles are less than 180 degrees. Let us take a convex polygon with nn sides. We can pick any one vertex. Let us call it vertex A. We draw lines (diagonals) from vertex A. We draw them to all other non-adjacent vertices.

For example, consider a square. It has 4 sides. Pick one corner. Draw a line to the opposite corner. This divides the square into two triangles.

Diagram 2

Consider a pentagon. It has 5 sides. Pick one corner. Draw lines to the two non-adjacent corners. This divides the pentagon into three triangles. This method always works for convex polygons.

Diagram 3

Step 3 — What about Concave Polygons?

A concave polygon has at least one "dent." This means at least one internal angle is greater than 180 degrees. It might seem harder to divide these shapes. But we can still divide them into triangles. We can always find a line segment. This line segment connects two vertices of the polygon. This line segment must lie entirely inside the polygon.

Drawing this line segment splits the polygon into two smaller polygons. One of these smaller polygons might even be a triangle. We can repeat this process. We keep drawing internal line segments. Each time, we reduce the number of sides of the remaining polygons. Eventually, all the smaller shapes will be triangles. So, yes, any polygon can be divided into triangles.

Diagram 4

Answer

Yes, any polygon can be divided into triangles. This can be done by drawing non-overlapping line segments between its vertices until the entire interior is filled with triangles.

More questions in IT

Q1

Try to think of different creative ways to divide a square into 4 parts of equal area.

Q2

Why Can't Perimeter be a Measure of Area?

Why do we count the number of unit squares to assign measures for area? Couldn't we have just used the perimeter of a region, i.e., the length of its boundary as a measure of its area?

Q3

Context: Consider two regions, Region 1 and Region 2, such that Perimeter of Region 1 > Perimeter of Region 2, but Area of Region 1 < Area of Region 2.

Q. Find two rectangles that are examples of such regions. If needed, use a grid paper (given at the end of the book) for this.

Q4

Also give an example of two regions of other shapes, where the region with the larger perimeter has the smaller area! This property should be visually clear in your example.

Q5

In the given figure, which triangle has a greater area: Δ\DeltaXDC or Δ\DeltaYDC, if both the rectangles are identical?

Q6

In the given figure, which triangle has a greater area: Δ\DeltaXDC or Δ\DeltaYBC, if both the rectangles are identical?

Q7

Find the area of Δ\DeltaXDC.

Q8

To find the area of a triangle, what measurements do we need?

Q9

How do we get the outer rectangle from the given triangle?

Q10

Will this formula hold for the kind of triangle, around which we cannot draw a rectangle with BC as the base?

Q11

Line lBCl \parallel \text{BC}. Consider the different triangles that have BC as their base, and with their third vertex lying anywhere on ll.

(i) Which of these triangles has the maximum area, and which has the minimum area?

(ii) Which of these triangles has the maximum perimeter, and which has the minimum perimeter?

Q12

Analyse whether A lies on the perpendicular bisector of BC.

Q13

Area of any Polygon

How do we find the area of this quadrilateral? What measurements do we need for this?

Q14

How do we find the area of this pentagon?

Q15

Can any polygon be divided into triangles?

Q16

Give a method to convert a parallelogram into a rectangle of equal area.

You can try this using a cut-out of a parallelogram.

Q17

Can ΔAXD\Delta\text{AXD} and ABCX\text{ABCX} fit together, as shown in the figure, to get a rectangle?

Q18

Try working this out!

Q19

What are the sidelengths of the rectangle WXYZ?

Q20

Area of rhombus ABCD can also be determined by finding the areas of ΔADB\Delta\text{ADB} and ΔCDB\Delta\text{CDB}. What formula does this give us?

Q21

Context: The area of rhombus ABCD can be written as: Area of rhombus ABCD=Area(ΔADB)+Area(ΔCDB)=12×AO×BD+12×CO×BD\text{Area of rhombus ABCD} = \text{Area}(\Delta\text{ADB}) + \text{Area}(\Delta\text{CDB}) = \frac{1}{2} \times \text{AO} \times \text{BD} + \frac{1}{2} \times \text{CO} \times \text{BD}

Q. Simplify the expression to show that we get the same formula for the area of a rhombus in terms of its diagonals.

Q22

Find the areas of the following trapeziums by breaking them into figures whose areas can be computed.

Q23

Will this formula hold for a trapezium that looks like this?

Q24

Will Approach 2 work for any type of trapezium?

Q25

What figure will we get when the two trapeziums are joined along BC?

Q26

What type of a quadrilateral is this?

Q27

What do you think is the area of an A4 sheet? Its sidelengths are 21 cm and 29.7 cm. Now find its area.

Q28

What do you think is the area of the tabletop that you use at school or at home? You could perhaps try to visualise how many A4 sheets can fit on your table.

Q29

Express the following lengths in centimeters:

(i) 5 in

(ii) 7.4 in

Q30

Express the following lengths in inches:

(i) 5.08 cm

(ii) 11.43 cm

Q31

How many cm2\text{cm}^2 is 1 in21\text{ in}^2?

Q32

Context: Convert 161.29 cm2161.29\text{ cm}^2 to in2\text{in}^2. Every 6.4516 cm26.4516\text{ cm}^2 gives an in2\text{in}^2. Hence, 161.29 cm2=161.296.4516 in2161.29\text{ cm}^2 = \frac{161.29}{6.4516}\text{ in}^2.

Q. Evaluate the quotient.

Q33

What do you think is the area of your classroom?

Q34

How many in2\text{in}^2 is 1 ft21\text{ ft}^2?

Q35

What do you think is the area of your school? Make an estimate and compare it with the actual data.

Q36

Find out the local unit of area measurement in your region.

Q37

What do you think is the area of your village/town/city? Make an estimate and compare it with the actual data.

Q38

How many m2\text{m}^2 is a km2\text{km}^2?

Q39

How many times is your village/town/city bigger than your school?

Q40

Find the city with the largest area in:

(i) India

(ii) the world

Q41

Find the city with the smallest area in:

(i) India

(ii) the world

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