What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

Another example:

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

Triangles

The Interior Angles of a Triangle add up to 180°

Let's try a triangle:

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

90° + 60° + 30° = 180°

It works for this triangle

Now tilt a line by 10°:

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

80° + 70° + 30° = 180°

It still works!
One angle went up by 10°,
and the other went down by 10°

Quadrilaterals (Squares, etc)

(A Quadrilateral has 4 straight sides)

Let's try a square:

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

90° + 90° + 90° + 90° = 360°

A Square adds up to 360°

Now tilt a line by 10°:

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

80° + 100° + 90° + 90° = 360°

It still adds up to 360°

The Interior Angles of a Quadrilateral add up to 360°

Because there are 2 triangles in a square ...

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

The interior angles in a triangle add up to 180° ...

... and for the square they add up to 360° ...

... because the square can be made from two triangles!

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

A pentagon has 5 sides, and can be made from three triangles, so you know what ...

... its interior angles add up to 3 × 180° = 540°

And when it is regular (all angles the same), then each angle is 540° / 5 = 108°

(Exercise: make sure each triangle here adds up to 180°, and check that the pentagon's interior angles add up to 540°)

The Interior Angles of a Pentagon add up to 540°

The General Rule

Each time we add a side (triangle to quadrilateral, quadrilateral to pentagon, etc), we add another 180° to the total:

      If it is a Regular Polygon (all sides are equal, all angles are equal)
Shape Sides Sum of
Interior Angles
Shape Each Angle
Triangle 3 180°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
60°
Quadrilateral 4 360°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
90°
Pentagon 5 540°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
108°
Hexagon 6 720°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
120°
Heptagon (or Septagon) 7 900°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
128.57...°
Octagon 8 1080°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
135°
Nonagon 9 1260°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
140°
... ... .. ... ...
Any Polygon n (n−2) × 180°
What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?
(n−2) × 180° / n

So the general rule is:

Sum of Interior Angles = (n−2) × 180°

Each Angle (of a Regular Polygon) = (n−2) × 180° / n

Perhaps an example will help:

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

Sum of Interior Angles = (n−2) × 180°

 = (10−2) × 180°

 = 8 × 180°

 = 1440°

And for a Regular Decagon:

Each interior angle = 1440°/10 = 144°

Note: Interior Angles are sometimes called "Internal Angles"

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Interior angle formulas are used to find interior angles associated with a polygon and their sum. Interior angles are the angles that lie inside a shape, generally a polygon. Also, the angles lying in the area enclosed between two parallel lines that are intersected by a transversal are also called interior angles. Let us understand the interior angle formula in detail in the following section.

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

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What is Interior Angle Formula?

The interior angle formula is used to:

  • find the sum of all interior angles of a polygon.
  • find an unknown interior angle of a polygon.
  • find each interior angle of a regular polygon.

Let us consider a polygon of n sides. Then by interior angle formula to find the sum of interior angles of a polygon is given as,

The sum of interior angles = 180(n-2)º

The interior angles of a polygon always lie inside the polygon and the formula to calculate it can be obtained in three ways.

Formula 1: For “n” is the number of sides of a polygon, formula is as,

Interior angles of a Regular Polygon = [180°(n) – 360°] / n

Formula 2:  The formula to find the interior angle, if the exterior angle of a polygon is given, 

Interior Angle of a polygon = 180° – Exterior angle of a polygon

Formula 3: If the sum of all the interior angles of a regular polygon, the measure of interior angle can be calculates using the formula,

Interior Angle = Sum of the interior angles of a polygon / n

where,

“n” is the number of polygon sides

What is the formula to find each interior angle of a polygon?

Let us understand interior angle formulas better using solved examples.

 

Solved Examples Using Interior Angle Formula

  1. Solution: To find: The sum of all interior angles of a heptagon.

    We know that the number of sides of a heptagon is, n = 7.

    By interior angle formula

    The sum of interior angles = 180(n-2)º

    = 180 (7-2)º

    = 180 (5)º= 900º

    Answer: The sum of all interior angles of a heptagon = 900°.

  2. Solution: 

    To find: The measure of each interior angle of a regular polygon of 23 sides.

    The number of sides of the given polygon is n = 23.

    By interior angle formula,

    The sum of interior angles = 180(n-2)º= 180 (23-2)º

    = 180 (21) º

    = 3780º

    The measure of each interior angle is obtained by dividing the above sum by 23.

    Each interior angle = 3780 / 23 =  164.35°

    Answer: Each interior angle of a polygon of 23 sides = 164.35°.

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