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The apothem of a regular polygon
Regular polygon

A regular polygon is a polygon which is Equiangular polygon and equilateral . Regular polygons may be convex or Star 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.






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Apothem of Hexagon
The apothem of a regular polygon
Regular polygon

A regular polygon is a polygon which is Equiangular polygon and equilateral . Regular polygons may be convex or Star 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. Regular polygons are the only polygons that have apothems. Because of this, all the apothems in a polygon will be congruent and have the same length.

For a regular pyramid
Pyramid (geometry)

In geometry, a pyramid is a polyhedron formed by connecting a polygonal base and a point, called the apex . Each base edge and apex form a triangle....
, which is a pyramid whose base is a regular polygon, the apothem is the slant height of a lateral face; that is, the shortest distance from apex to base on a given face. For a truncated regular pyramid (a regular pyramid with some of its peak removed by a plane parallel to the base), the apothem is the height of a trapezoidal lateral face.

A triangle has four centers, circumcenter, incenter, centroid
Centroid

In geometry, the centroid, geometric center, or barycenter of a plane figure is the intersection of all straight lines that divide into two parts of equal moment about the line....
, and orthocenter. The center that is used to find the apothem is the incenter.

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
Triangle

A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or wikt:vertex and three sides or edges which are line segments....
, 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.

An apothem of a regular polygon will always be a radius of the inscribe
Inscribe

In geometry, an inscribed planar shape or solid is one that is enclosed by and "fits snugly" inside another geometric shape or solid. Specifically, at all points where figures meet, their edges must lie tangent....
d circle. It is also the distance between any side of the polygon and its center.

Finding the apothem

The apothem of a regular polygon can be found multiple ways, of which two are described here.

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

Both formulas can still be used even if only the perimeter p is known because

External links

  • With interactive animation
  • by Ed Pegg, Jr.
    Ed Pegg, Jr.

    Ed Pegg, Jr. is an expert on mathematical puzzles and is a self-described recreational mathematician. He creates puzzles for the Mathematical Association of America online at Ed Pegg, Jr.'s Math Games....
    , The Wolfram Demonstrations Project.