Suppose you have to use right-triangle trigonometry to find the apothem of a regular polygon. Which is greater, the apothem or the radius of the polygon?

Question

Mathematics

Lukas Gilmore

15 February, 15:46

Suppose you have to use right-triangle trigonometry to find the apothem of a regular polygon. Which is greater, the apothem or the radius of the polygon?

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Answers (1)

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Angelique Stein · Answer 1

The apothem represents one side of the right triangle to be solved. Specifically, it represents the height of the triangle.

The radius of the polygon represents the hypotenuse of the right triangle that is going to be solved.

Therefore, we can infer that the radius of the polygon is greater than the apothem because the hypotenuse is greater than all sides of a triangle.

Answer:

the radius of the polygon is greater