SOLID MENSURATION:

UNDERSTANDING THE 3D SPACE

CRIS ANGELO P. SALONGA. LPT

Objectives:

1. Define a polygon.
2. Name a polygon based on the number of sides.
3. Solve for the area of a polygon.

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

Introduction

Point, line, and plane are undefined terms in

geometry. Using these undefined terms, other
geometric figures are defined. Plane geometry is the
study of geometric figures that can be drawn on a
two-dimensional surface called plane. Figures that
lie on a plane are called two-dimensional figures or
simply plane figures. This chapter deals with
different plane figures, and their properties,
relations, and measurement. The most common
plane figures are the polygons.

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Polygons
A polygon is a closed plane figure formed by line segments.
Parts of a Polygon 1. The side or edge of a polygon is one of the
line segments that make up the polygon.
Side or Edge
Adjacent sides are pairs of sides that share
a common endpoint.
2. The vertices of a polygon are the end points
of each side of the polygon. Adjacent
Interior Angle Vertex vertices are endpoints of a side.
3. A diagonal of a polygon is a line segment
Diagonal
joining two non-adjacent vertices of the
Exterior polygon.
Angle 4. An interior angle is the angle formed by
two adjacent sides inside the polygon.
A polygon may also be defined as a union of line
segments such that: 5. An exterior angle is an angle that is
i) Each vertex is a common end point of two adjacent to and supplementary to an interior
adjacent line segments; angle of the polygon.
ii) no two adjacent line segments intersect except
at an endpoint; and
iii) no two segments with the same endpoint are
collinear.
Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT
 Types of Polygons
1. Equiangular Polygon An example of a convex polygon
A polygon is equiangular if all of its angles are
congruent.
2. Equilateral Polygon
A polygon is equilateral if all of its sides are equal.
3. Regular polygon
Regular polygons are both equiangular and
equilateral.
4. Irregular Polygon
A polygon that is neither equiangular nor equilateral
is said to be an irregular polygon.
An example of a concave polygon
5. Convex Polygon
Every interior angle is less than 180°. If a line is
drawn through the convex polygon, the line will
intersect at most two sides.
6. Concave Polygon
A concave polygon has at least one interior angle that
measures more than 180°. If a line is drawn through a
concave polygon the line mat intersect more than two
sides.

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

Naming Polygons
Polygons are named according to their number of sides. Generally, a polygon
with n sides is called an n-gon. To form the name of polygons with 13 to 99
sides, begin with the prefix of the tens digit, followed by kai (the Greek word
for and) and the prefix for the units digit.

Number of Sides Name of Polygon

n n-gon
3 triangle or trigon
4 quadlerateral or tetragon
5 pentagon
6 hexagon
7 heptagon
8 octagon
9 nonagon or enneagon
10 decagon
11 undecagon or hendecagon
12 dodecagon
13 tridecagon or triskaidecagon
14 tetradecagon or tetrakaidecagon
15 pentadecagon or pentakaidecagon
Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT
 Number of Sides Name of Polygon
16 hexadecagon or hexakaidecagon
17 heptadecagon or heptakaidecagon
18 octadecagon or octakaidecagon
19 enneadecagon or enneakaidecagon
20 isosagon
30 triacontagon
40 tetracontagon
50 pentacontagon
60 hexacontagon
70 heptacontagon
80 octacontagon
90 enneacontagon
100 hectogon or hecatontagon
1,000 chiliagon
10,000 myriagon
108 megagon
10100 googolgon

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Sides Prefix and Sides Suffix
(Ones Digit)
20 icosi or 1 henagon
icosa
30 triaconta 2 digon
40 tetraconta 3 trigon
50 pentaconta 4 tetragon
60 hexaconta kai + 5 pentagon
70 heptaconta 6 hexagon
80 octaconta 7 heptagon
90 enneaconta 8 octagon
9 enneagon

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

For numbers from 100 to 999, form the name of the polygon by starting with the prefix
for the hundreds digit taken from the ones digit, affix the word hecta, then follow the rule
on naming polygons with 3 to 99 sides. However, one may use the form n-gon, as in 24-
gon for a polygon with 24 sides, instead of using the above method.

Example 1
A 54-sided polygon is called a pentacontakaitetragon.
50 and 4
pentaconta kai tetragon

Example 2
A 532-sided polygon is called a pentahectatriacontakaidigon.

500 30 and 2
pentahecta triaconta kai digon

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

Similar Polygons

The ratio of two quantities is the quotient of one quantity divided by another quantity.
Note, however, that the two quantities must be of the same kind. For example, the ratio
of the measure of a side and an interior angle is meaningless because they are not
quantities of the same kind. A proportion is an expression of equality between two
ratios. That is, if two ratios a:b and c:d are equal, then the equation a/b=c/d is a
proportion. Thus, you can say that a and b are proportional to c and d.

Two polygons are similar if their corresponding interior angles are congruent and their
corresponding sides are proportional. Similar polygons have the same shape but differ in
size.

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Consider the similar polygons below.
y1 y2
x1 x2
A1 A2

The following relations between the two polygons are obtained using the
concept of ratio and proportion:

1. The ratio of any two corresponding sides of similar polygons are equal.

𝑥! 𝑦!
=
𝑥" 𝑦"

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 2. The ratio of the areas of similar polygons is the square of the ratio of any two
corresponding sides.

𝐴! 𝑥! "
=
𝐴" 𝑥"

3. The ratio of the perimeters of similar polygons is equal to the ratio of any of
any two corresponding sides.

𝑃! 𝑥!
=
𝑃" 𝑥"

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Properties of a Regular Polygon

A regular polygon of n sides can be subdivided into n congruent isosceles

triangles, whose base is a side of the polygon. The common vertex of these
triangles is the center of the polygon.
s

θ/2

Perimeter

To find a perimeter of a polygon, add the lengths of the sides of the polygon.
Since regular polygons are equilateral, the formula in finding the perimiter
of a regular polygon is
𝑃 = 𝑛𝑠,

Where n is the number of sides and s is the length of each side.

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Central Angle
The angle that is opposite a side of a regular polygon is a central angle θ of the
polygon. It is the angle formed by two lines drawn from the center of the polygon to two
adjacent vertices. Regular polygons are equiangular. Thus, the measure of each angle is
given by
360°
𝜃=
𝑛

Apothem
The altitude of the isosceles triangles that can be formed from a regular polygon is the
apothem of the regular polygon. The apothem bisects the central angle and its
opposite side. Thus, we can compute for the apothem as follows:

𝜃 360° 𝑠
tan = tan =
2 2𝑛 2𝑎
Solving for a,
𝑠
𝑎=
180°
2 tan
𝑛
Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT
Interior Angle

In each isosceles triangle, the measure of the base angles can be denoted by Φ, and
each interior angle of the regular polygon by 2Φ. Thus, the measure of each interior angle
is solved as follows:

180° = Φ + Φ + 𝜃 Φ Φ
180° = 2Φ + 𝜃 Φ Φ
2Φ = 180° − 𝜃 θ

#$%°
2Φ = 180° −
'
!(%°')#$%°
2Φ =
'
!(%°(')")
2Φ =
'

180°𝑛 − 360°
𝐼. 𝐴. =
𝑛

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

Sum of Interior Angles

Since the number of sides equals the number of interior angles, then the sum of
interior angles is n times the measure of the interior angle. Hence,

𝑆. 𝐼. 𝐴. = 180°(𝑛 − 2)

Diagonal

From any given vertex of a regular polygon, a diagonal is drawn from the vertex
to a non-adjacent vertex. This means that you can construct a diagonal from
each vertex of a polygon with 𝑛 sides in 𝑛 – 3 ways. Since there are 𝑛 vertices
'
and each diagonal has two end points, you can do this in only " ways. Thus, the
total number of distinct diagonals of a regular polygon is

𝑛
𝐷 = 𝑛−3
2

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Area

Area is the amount of two dimensional space that a plane figure occupies. To get
the area of a regular polygon, multiply the area of the isosceles triangle by the
,
number of triangles formed, or 𝐴 = "
(𝑎)(𝑛).

Note that this is the same as one half of the product of its perimeter and its
apothem. In general, the formula of a regular polygon is given by

1 𝑃𝑎
𝐴= 𝑃𝑎 =
2 2

The formula for area of a regular polygon can be expressed in terms of its
number of sides and the measure of one side as follows:
1
𝐴= 𝑃𝑎
2
1 𝑠
𝐴= 𝑛𝑠
2 180°
2 tan
𝑛
𝑛𝑠 "
𝐴=
180°
4 tan
𝑛
Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT
 Example 3
Find the area of a regular nonagon whose sides measure 3 units. Determine the
number of distinct diagonals that can be drawn from each vertex and the sum
of its interior angles.
Solution:
A nonagon is a 9-sided polygon. Thus, n = 9. Given s = 3, solve as follows:
Area of the polygon:
𝑛𝑠 "
𝐴=
180°
4 tan
𝑛
9 3 "
𝐴=
180°
4 tan
𝑛
𝐴 = 55.64 𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑠
Number of diagonals: Sum of interior angles:
𝑛 𝑆. 𝐼. 𝐴. = 180° 𝑛 − 2
𝐷 = 𝑛−3
2 𝑆. 𝐼. 𝐴. = 180° 9 − 2
9
𝐷 = 9−3 𝑆. 𝐼. 𝐴. = 1,260°
2
𝐷 = 27
Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT
 Example 4

The number of diagonals of a regular polygon is 35. Find the area of the polygon
if its apothem measures 10 cm.

Area of the polygon:

𝑨 = 𝟑𝟐𝟓. 𝟎𝟖 𝒄𝒎𝟐

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Example 5

The number of diagonals of a regular polygon is 65. Find perimeter of the polygon
if its apothem measures 8 in.

Perimeter of the polygon:

𝑷 = 𝟓𝟏. 𝟐𝟐 𝒊𝒏

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

 Example 6

The sum of interior angles of a regular polygon is 1260° . Find the area of the
polygon if the perimeter is 45 cm.

Area of the polygon:

𝑨 = 𝟏𝟓𝟒. 𝟓𝟓 𝒄𝒎𝟐

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT

Exercises

1. Use the diagram below to answer questions (a) to (d)

a) Is the polygon convex or concave?

b) How many diagonals can be drawn from vertex A?
c) How many sides does the polygon have?
d) What is the name of the polygon

Solid Mensuration: Understanding the 3D Space Cris Angelo P. Salonga, LPT