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Exterior Angle=72 degrees.

Find the interior angle measure
and the number of sides of the polygon.

1 Answer

3 votes

Answer:

The interior angle would measure
108^(\circ). Assuming that this polygon is regular, it would contain
5 sides.

Explanation:

An exterior angle in a polygon is supplementary with the interior angle that shares the same vertex with the exterior angle. In other words, the sum of these two angles would be
180^(\circ).

In this question, the exterior angle measures
72^(\circ). Therefore, the interior angle that shares the same vertex with this
72^(\circ)\! exterior angle would measure
(180^(\circ) - 72^(\circ)), which is
108^(\circ).

The sum of all interior angles in a polygon with
n sides (regular or not) is
180\, (n - 2) degrees.

All the interior angles in a regular polygon are equal. Hence, in a regular polygon with
n sides (and hence
n\! vertices,) each of the
n\!\! interior angles would measure
180\, (n - 2) / n degrees.

Assume that the polygon in this question is regular. Again, let
n be the number of sides in this polygon. Each interior angle would measure
180\, (n - 2) / n degrees. However, it was also deduced that an interior angle of this polygon measures
108^(\circ). That is:


\displaystyle (180 \, (n - 2))/(n) = 108.

Solve for
n:


180\, n - 2 * 180 = 108\, n.


(180 - 108)\, n = 360.


\begin{aligned}n &= (360)/(180 -108) \\ &= (360)/(72) \\ &= 5\end{aligned}.

In other words, if this polygon is regular, it would contain
5 sides.

User Rajat Beck
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