Calculate Angles Around Polygons

In this activity, we will calculate the angles around polygons.

A polygon is the collective name for all the shapes that have straight sides!

The outside - exterior angles of any polygon add up to 360^o

A regular polygon has all the sides and angles the same.

Therefore, we can work out one of the exterior angles of any regular polygon!

Example

Calculate the exterior  angles of a regular hexagon.

Answer

We know that a regular hexagon has six sides.

We also know that all the exterior angles add up to 360^o

To find one angle, we can divide 360 by the number of sides.

360 ÷ 6 sides = 60^o

Each exterior angle = 60^o

This helps us to find the interior (inside) angle too!

The interior + exterior angle = 180^o   a straight line!

Look here!

You can see a zoomed-in angle from the triangle, square, pentagon and hexagon from above.

The dot is the interior angle. 

You can see that the interior + exterior angle = 180^o

Let's do some polygon questions!