1

Polygons in polygons
1. Consider a regular (equilateral) triangle. Find the mid- You might want to carefully
construct or draw the triangle.
points of each side, and then connect the midpoints.
(a) What kind of polygon is formed inside the triangle?
(b) How does the area of that polygon compare to the area
of the triangle?
(c) Try again with a triangle of a dierent size. Does either
answer change?
2. Now consider a square with the midpoints connected to
form another polygon inside.
(a) What kind of polygon is formed inside the square?
(b) How does the area of that polygon compare to the area
of the square? Does the size of the original square
matter?
3. Try it again with a pentagon.
(a) What kind of polygon is formed inside the pentagon?
(b) How does the area of that polygon compare to the area
of the pentagon?
4. Make and prove some conjectures. (You may want to test
some more cases, or do some algebraic work, before you
make your conjectures.)
(a) If you connect the midpoints of a regular n-gon, what
kind of polygon is formed inside the original polygon?
(b) How does the area of the constructed polygon compare
to the area of the original polygon?
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001
Polygons in polygons: Hints 1
Hints
If you have access to dynamic geometry software, exploring
the situation with each polygon might help you get some ideas
about whats going on.
You can create a regular n-gon by rst making a circle. Create
a point on the circle, then rotate the point about the circle (
360
n
)

to get another vertex. Rotate that vertex by the same amount

to get the next vertex, and so on until you have all n vertices.
Create the polygons and have the software calculate the areas.
If you have some idea how the areas might be related, you can
have the software do some calculation to verify your idea. If
youre not sure what is the relationship between the areas of
the original and constructed polygon, vary the size of the circle
and record the corresponding areas for several sizes. Plot that
data and see what kind of relationship there is.
Hint to problem 4. The area of a regular n-gon with side
length s is
ns
2
4
tan(90
180
n
) (where the angle measure is in de-
grees).
Find the areas of the two n-gons (the original and the con-
structed), and compare them. Of course, to nd the area of
the constructed n-gon, you have to nd the length of each side.
Examine the triangle formed by a vertex of the original n-gon
and the midpoints of the two sides that share that vertex.
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001
Polygons in polygons: Answers 1
Answers
1. (a) A regular triangle
(b) The area of the new triangle is
1
4
that of the original.
(c) Neither answer changes.
2. (a) A square
(b) The area of the new square is
1
2
that of the original.
This is true regardless of the size of the original.
3. (a) A regular pentagon
(b) The area of the new pentagon is approximately 0.65
(or cos
2
36

) times that of the original. This is true

regardless of the size of the original.
4. See the solutions for proofs.
(a) If you connect the midpoints of a regular n-gon, a reg-
ular n-gon is formed inside the original polygon.
(b) Area of the new polygon = (Area of the original polygon)cos
2
(
180
n
)
Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001
Polygons in polygons: Solutions 1
Solutions
Solution to problem 4a. A polygon with n sides will have n
midpoints. So the constructed polygon will have n vertices, and
therefore be an n-gon. The symmetry of the original regular n-
gon ensures the constructed n-gon will have the same symmetry
and so be regular as well.
Solution to problem 4b. If the original n-gon has side length
s, its area is A
o
=
ns
2
4
tan(90
180
n
).
The side length of the constructed n-gon is s cos(
180
n
): Con-
sider the triangle formed by one vertex of the original n-gon and
the midpoints of the two sides that share the vertex.
The interior angle of the original n-gon (

A in the triangle
above) has measure 180
360
n
. This triangle is an isosceles tri-
angle (each side adjacent to

A has length
s
2
), so the remaining
angles have measure [180 (180
360
n
)](
1
2
), which is
180
n
. Con-
struct a segment from A perpendicular to the side opposite A:
Now you have two right triangles. Let the leg on each that
isnt shared have length x. Using trigonometry, you see that
cos(
180
n
) =
x
s
2
, so x =
s
2
cos(
180
n
). The length of each side of the
constructed n-gon is 2x, or s cos(
180
n
).
The area of the constructed n-gon is
A
c
=

n
4

s cos

180
n

2
tan

90
180
n

=
ns
2
4
tan

90
180
n

cos
2

180
n

= A
o
cos
2

180
n

Problems with a Point: December 10, 2001 c EDC 2001