Question

Are these polygons similar ? Explain why or why not.

Answer 1

Yes, the polygons are similar.

Explanation:

A similar polygon is a polygon that shares the same scale factor as another polygon. A scale factor is a number you can multiply each side by to get a similar figure,

Step 1:

Divide a few of the sides. You do not need to divide every side to find the ratio, but do at least 2 or 3 to guarantee that the scale factor remains the same throughout the sides. Let’s divide a few pairs of sides.

`27/18=1.5`

`30/20=1.5`

`21/14=1.5`

Step 2:

To really be safe, even though we can clearly tell this is a similar figure, is we can multiply each side on the right figure by 1.5, our scale factor, and see if we generate the sides on the left figure.

`18*1.5=27`

`20*1.5=30`

`14*1.5=21`

And this is why the polygons are similar :)