| Kite |
A kite showing its equal sides and its inscribed circle. |
| Type |
QuadrilateralIn Euclidean plane geometry, a quadrilateral is a polygon with four sides and four vertices or corners. Sometimes, the term quadrangle is used, by analogy with triangle, and sometimes tetragon for consistency with pentagon , hexagon and so on...
|
| Edges and vertices |
4 |
| Symmetry group |
D1Reflection symmetry, reflectional symmetry, line symmetry, mirror symmetry, mirror-image symmetry, or bilateral symmetry is symmetry with respect to reflection. That is, a figure which does not change upon undergoing a reflection has reflectional symmetry.In 2D there is a line of symmetry, in 3D a...
(*) |
In
Euclidean geometryEuclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to the Alexandrian Greek mathematician Euclid, which he described in his textbook on geometry: the Elements. Euclid's method consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms, and deducing many other propositions from these...
a
kite is a
quadrilateralIn Euclidean plane geometry, a quadrilateral is a polygon with four sides and four vertices or corners. Sometimes, the term quadrangle is used, by analogy with triangle, and sometimes tetragon for consistency with pentagon , hexagon and so on...
whose four sides can be grouped into two pairs of equal-length sides that are next to each other. In contrast, a
parallelogramIn Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a convex quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equal measure...
also has two pairs of equal-length sides, but they are opposite each other rather than next to each other. Kite quadrilaterals are named for the wind-blown, flying
kiteA kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...
s, which often have this shape and which are in turn named for a
birdKites are raptors with long wings and weak legs which spend a great deal of time soaring. Most feed mainly on carrion but some take various amounts of live prey.They are birds of prey which, along with hawks and eagles, are from the family Accipitridae....
. Kites are also known as
deltoids, but the word "deltoid" may also refer to a
deltoid curveIn geometry, a deltoid, also known as a tricuspoid or Steiner curve, is a hypocycloid of three cusps. In other words, it is the roulette created by a point on the circumference of a circle as it rolls without slipping along the inside of a circle with three times its radius...
, an unrelated geometric object.
A kite, as defined above, may be either convex or concave, but the word "kite" is often restricted to the convex variety. A concave kite is sometimes called a "dart" or "arrowhead", and is a type of
pseudotriangleIn Euclidean plane geometry, a pseudotriangle is the simply connected subset of the plane that lies between any three mutually tangent convex sets...
.
Special cases
If all four sides of a kite have the same length (that is, if the kite is
equilateralIn geometry, an equilateral polygon is a polygon which has all sides of the same length.For instance, an equilateral triangle is a triangle of equal edge lengths...
), it must be a
rhombusIn Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
.
If a kite is
equiangularIn Euclidean geometry, an equiangular polygon is a polygon whose vertex angles are equal. If the lengths of the sides are also equal then it is a regular polygon.The only equiangular triangle is the equilateral triangle...
, meaning that all four of its angles are equal, then it must also be equilateral and thus a
squareIn geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...
.
Among all quadrilaterals, the shape that has the greatest ratio of its
perimeterA perimeter is a path that surrounds an area. The word comes from the Greek peri and meter . The term may be used either for the path or its length - it can be thought of as the length of the outline of a shape. The perimeter of a circular area is called circumference.- Practical uses :Calculating...
to its
diameterIn geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...
is a kite with angles π/3, 5π/12, 5π/6, 5π/12.
The kites that are also
cyclic quadrilateralIn Euclidean geometry, a cyclic quadrilateral is a quadrilateral whose vertices all lie on a single circle. This circle is called the circumcircle or circumscribed circle, and the vertices are said to be concyclic. Other names for these quadrilaterals are chordal quadrilateral and inscribed...
s (i.e. the kites that can be inscribed in a circle) are exactly the ones formed from two congruent
right triangleA right triangle or right-angled triangle is a triangle in which one angle is a right angle . The relation between the sides and angles of a right triangle is the basis for trigonometry.-Terminology:The side opposite the right angle is called the hypotenuse...
s. That is, for these kites the two equal angles on opposite sides of the symmetry axis are each 90 degrees. These shapes are called
right kites.
Characterizations
A
quadrilateralIn Euclidean plane geometry, a quadrilateral is a polygon with four sides and four vertices or corners. Sometimes, the term quadrangle is used, by analogy with triangle, and sometimes tetragon for consistency with pentagon , hexagon and so on...
is a kite
if and only ifIn logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, if and only if is a biconditional logical connective between statements....
one of the following statements is true:
- One diagonal is the perpendicular bisector of the other diagonal. (In the concave case it is the extension of one of the diagonals.)
- One diagonal divides the quadrilateral into two congruent triangles.
Symmetry
In a kite, there exists a pair of opposite congruent angles. One diagonal in a kite bisects a pair of opposite angles.
The kites are the quadrilaterals that have an
axis of symmetryReflection symmetry, reflectional symmetry, line symmetry, mirror symmetry, mirror-image symmetry, or bilateral symmetry is symmetry with respect to reflection. That is, a figure which does not change upon undergoing a reflection has reflectional symmetry.In 2D there is a line of symmetry, in 3D a...
along one of their
diagonalA diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...
s. Any
non-self-crossingIn geometry, a simple polygon is a closed polygonal chain of line segments in the plane which do not have points in common other than the common vertices of pairs of consecutive segments....
quadrilateral that has an axis of symmetry must be either a kite (if the axis of symmetry is a diagonal) or an
isosceles trapezoidIn Euclidean geometry, an isosceles trapezoid is a convex quadrilateral with a line of symmetry bisecting one pair of opposite sides, making it automatically a trapezoid...
(if the axis of symmetry passes through the midpoints of two sides); these include as special cases the
rhombusIn Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
and the
rectangleIn Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...
respectively, which have two axes of symmetry each, and the
squareIn geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...
which is both a kite and an isosceles trapezoid and has four axes of symmetry. If crossings are allowed, the list of quadrilaterals with axes of symmetry must be expanded to also include the
antiparallelogramAn antiparallelogram is a quadrilateral in which, like a parallelogram, the pairs of nonadjacent sides are congruent, but in which two opposite sides intersect and are therefore not parallel.-Properties:Every antiparallelogram has an axis of symmetry through its crossing point...
s. Kites and isosceles trapezoids are dual: the polar figure of a kite is an isosceles trapezoid, and vice versa.
Area
Every kite is
orthodiagonalIn Euclidean geometry, an orthodiagonal quadrilateral is a quadrilateral in which the diagonals cross at right angles. In other words, it is a four-sided figure in which the line segments between non-adjacent vertices are orthogonal to each other....
, meaning that its two diagonals are
at right anglesIn geometry, two lines or planes are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruent adjacent angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective...
to each other. Moreover, one of the two diagonals (the symmetry axis) is the perpendicular bisector of the other, and is also the angle bisector of the two angles it meets. As is true more generally for any orthodiagonal quadrilateral, the area
K of a kite may be calculated as half the product of the lengths of the diagonals
p and
q:
Alternatively, if
a and
b are the lengths of two unequal sides, and
θ is the
angleIn geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common endpoint, called the vertex of the angle.Angles are usually presumed to be in a Euclidean plane with the circle taken for standard with regard to direction. In fact, an angle is frequently viewed as a measure of an circular arc...
between unequal sides, then the area is
One of the two diagonals of a convex kite divides it into two isosceles triangles; the other (the axis of symmetry) divides the kite into two congruent triangles. The two interior angles of a kite that are on opposite sides of the symmetry axis are equal.
Additional properties
Every convex kite has an inscribed circle; that is, there exists a circle that is
tangentIn geometry, the tangent line to a plane curve at a given point is the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point. More precisely, a straight line is said to be a tangent of a curve at a point on the curve if the line passes through the point on the curve and has slope where f...
to all four sides. Therefore, every convex kite is a
tangential quadrilateralIn Euclidean geometry, a tangential quadrilateral or circumscribed quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral whose sides all lie tangent to a single circle inscribed within the quadrilateral. This circle is called the incircle...
. Additionally, if a convex kite is not a rhombus, there is another circle, outside the kite, tangent to the lines that pass through its four sides; therefore, every convex kite that is not a rhombus is an
ex-tangential quadrilateralIn Euclidean geometry, an ex-tangential quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral where the extensions of all four sides are tangent to a circle outside the quadrilateral. It has also been called an exscriptible quadrilateral. The circle is called its excircle or its escribed circle, its radius the...
. For every concave kite there exist two circles tangent to all four (possibly extended) sides: one is interior to the kite and touches the two sides opposite from the concave angle, while the other circle is exterior to the kite and touches the kite on the two edges incident to the concave angle.
A
tangential quadrilateralIn Euclidean geometry, a tangential quadrilateral or circumscribed quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral whose sides all lie tangent to a single circle inscribed within the quadrilateral. This circle is called the incircle...
is a kite
if and only ifIn logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, if and only if is a biconditional logical connective between statements....
any one of the following conditions is true:
- The area is one half the product of the diagonal
A diagonal is a line joining two nonconsecutive vertices of a polygon or polyhedron. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word "diagonal" derives from the Greek διαγώνιος , from dia- and gonia ; it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a...
s
- The diagonals are perpendicular
In geometry, two lines or planes are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruent adjacent angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective...
- The two line segments connecting opposite points of tangency have equal length
- One pair of opposite tangent lengths have equal length
- The bimedians have equal length
- The products of opposite sides are equal
- The center of the incircle lies on the longest diagonal
Thus the kites are exactly the quadrilaterals that are both
orthodiagonalIn Euclidean geometry, an orthodiagonal quadrilateral is a quadrilateral in which the diagonals cross at right angles. In other words, it is a four-sided figure in which the line segments between non-adjacent vertices are orthogonal to each other....
and tangential.
Tilings and polyhedra
All kites
tile the planeA tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces. Generalizations to higher dimensions are also possible. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art...
by repeated inversion around the midpoints of their edges, as do more generally all quadrilaterals. A kite with angles π/3, π/2, 2π/3, π/2 can also tile the plane by repeated reflection across its edges; the resulting tessellation, the
deltoidal trihexagonal tilingIn geometry, the deltoidal trihexagonal tiling is a dual of the semiregular tiling.Conway calls it a tetrille.The edges of this tiling can be formed by the intersection overlay of the regular triangular tiling and a hexagonal tiling.- Dual tiling :...
, superposes a tessellation of the plane by regular hexagons and isosceles triangles. The
deltoidal icositetrahedronIn geometry, a deltoidal icositetrahedron is a Catalan solid which looks a bit like an overinflated cube. Its dual polyhedron is the rhombicuboctahedron....
,
deltoidal hexecontahedronIn geometry, a deltoidal hexecontahedron is a catalan solid which looks a bit like an overinflated dodecahedron. It is sometimes also called the trapezoidal hexecontahedron or strombic hexecontahedron...
, and
trapezohedraThe n-gonal trapezohedron, antidipyramid or deltohedron is the dual polyhedron of an n-gonal antiprism. Its 2n faces are congruent kites . The faces are symmetrically staggered.The n-gon part of the name does not reference the faces here but arrangement of vertices around an axis of symmetry...
are polyhedra with congruent kite-shaped
facetsA facet of a simplicial complex is a maximal simplex.In the general theory of polyhedra and polytopes, two conflicting meanings are currently jostling for acceptability:...
. There are an infinite number of
uniform tilingsThere are an infinite number of uniform tilings on the hyperbolic plane based on the where 1/p + 1/q + 1/r ...
of the
hyperbolic planeIn mathematics, the term hyperbolic plane may refer to:* A two-dimensional plane in hyperbolic geometry* A two-dimensional plane in Minkowski space...
by kites, the simplest of which is the deltoidal triheptagonal tiling.
Kites and darts in which the two isosceles triangles forming the kite have apex angles of 2π/5 and 4π/5 represent one of two sets of essential tiles in the
Penrose tilingA Penrose tiling is a non-periodic tiling generated by an aperiodic set of prototiles named after Sir Roger Penrose, who investigated these sets in the 1970s. The aperiodicity of the Penrose prototiles implies that a shifted copy of a Penrose tiling will never match the original...
, an
aperiodic tilingAn aperiodic tiling is a tiling obtained from an aperiodic set of tiles. Properly speaking, aperiodicity is a property of particular sets of tiles; any given finite tiling is either periodic or non-periodic...
of the plane discovered by mathematical physicist
Roger PenroseSir Roger Penrose OM FRS is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College...
.
Deltoidal icositetrahedronIn geometry, a deltoidal icositetrahedron is a Catalan solid which looks a bit like an overinflated cube. Its dual polyhedron is the rhombicuboctahedron....
|
Deltoidal hexecontahedronIn geometry, a deltoidal hexecontahedron is a catalan solid which looks a bit like an overinflated dodecahedron. It is sometimes also called the trapezoidal hexecontahedron or strombic hexecontahedron...
|
Deltoidal trihexagonal tilingIn geometry, the deltoidal trihexagonal tiling is a dual of the semiregular tiling.Conway calls it a tetrille.The edges of this tiling can be formed by the intersection overlay of the regular triangular tiling and a hexagonal tiling.- Dual tiling :...
|
Deltoidal triheptagonal tilingThere are an infinite number of uniform tilings on the hyperbolic plane based on the where 1/p + 1/q + 1/r ...
|
See also
- Orthodiagonal quadrilateral
In Euclidean geometry, an orthodiagonal quadrilateral is a quadrilateral in which the diagonals cross at right angles. In other words, it is a four-sided figure in which the line segments between non-adjacent vertices are orthogonal to each other....
- Rhombus
In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
- Square (geometry)
In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...
- Tangential quadrilateral
In Euclidean geometry, a tangential quadrilateral or circumscribed quadrilateral is a convex quadrilateral whose sides all lie tangent to a single circle inscribed within the quadrilateral. This circle is called the incircle...
External links