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Icosagon

Icosagon is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Icosagon rather than just read about it. In short: In geometry, an icosagon or 20-gon is a twenty-sided polygon. The sum of any icosagon's interior angles is 3240 degrees.

Icosagon — main illustration
Icosagon — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Icosagon belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Icosagon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Icosagon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In geometry, an icosagon or 20-gon is a twenty-sided polygon. The sum of any icosagon's interior angles is 3240 degrees.

Regular icosagon The regular icosagon has Schläfli symbol {20}, and can also be constructed as a truncated decagon, t{10}, or a twice-truncated pentagon, tt{5}. One interior angle in a regular icosagon is 162°, meaning that one exterior angle would be 18°. The area of a regular icosagon with edge length t is

A = 5 t 2 ( 1 + 5 + 5 + 2 5 ) ≃ 31.5687 t 2 . {\displaystyle A={5}t^{2}(1+{\sqrt {5}}+{\sqrt {5+2{\sqrt {5}}}})\simeq 31.5687t^{2}.}

In terms of the radius R of its circumcircle, the area is

A = 5 R 2 2 ( 5 − 1 ) ; {\displaystyle A={\frac {5R^{2}}{2}}({\sqrt {5}}-1);}

since the area of the circle is π R 2 , {\displaystyle \pi R^{2},} the regular icosagon fills approximately 98.36% of its circumcircle.

Uses The Big Wheel on the popular US game show The Price is Right has an icosagonal cross-section. The Globe, the outdoor theater used by William Shakespeare's acting company, was discovered to have been built on an icosagonal foundation when a partial excavation was done in 1989. As a golygonal path, the swastika is considered to be an irregular icosagon.

A regular square, pentagon, and icosagon can completely fill a plane vertex.

Construction As 20 = 22 × 5, regular icosagon is constructible using a compass and straightedge, or by an edge-bisection of a regular decagon, or a twice-bisected regular pentagon:

The golden ratio in an icosagon In the construction with given side length the circular arc around C with radius CD, shares the segment E20F in ratio of the golden ratio.

E 20 E 1 ¯ E 1 F ¯ = E 20 F ¯ E 20 E 1 ¯ = 1 + 5 2 = φ ≈ 1.618 {\displaystyle {\frac {\overline {E_{20}E_{1}}}{\overline {E_{1}F}}}={\frac {\overline {E_{20}F}}{\overline {E_{20}E_{1}}}}={\frac {1+{\sqrt {5}}}{2}}=\varphi \approx 1.618}

Symmetry

The regular icosagon has Dih20 symmetry, order 40. There are 5 subgroup dihedral symmetries: (Dih10, Dih5), and (Dih4, Dih2, and Dih1), and 6 cyclic group symmetries: (Z20, Z10, Z5), and (Z4, Z2, Z1). These 10 symmetries can be seen in 16 distinct symmetries on the icosagon, a larger number because the lines of reflections can either pass through vertices or edges. John Conway labels these by a letter and group order. Full symmetry of the regular form is r40 and no symmetry is labeled a1. The dihedral symmetries are divided depending on whether they pass through vertices (d for diagonal) or edges (p for perpendiculars), and i when reflection lines path through both edges and vertices. Cyclic symmetries in the middle column are labeled as g for their central gyration orders. Each subgroup symmetry allows one or more degrees of freedom for irregular forms. Only the g20 subgroup has no degrees of freedom but can be seen as directed edges. The highest symmetry irregular icosagons are d20, an isogonal icosagon constructed by ten mirrors which can alternate long and short edges, and p20, an isotoxal icosagon, constructed with equal edge lengths, but vertices alternating two different internal angles. These two forms are duals of each other and have half the symmetry order of the regular icosagon.

Dissection

Coxeter states that every zonogon (a 2m-gon whose opposite sides are parallel and of equal length) can be dissected into m(m-1)/2 parallelograms. In particular this is true for regular polygons with evenly many sides, in which case the parallelograms are all rhombi. For the icosagon, m=10, and it can be divided into 45: 5 squares and 4 sets of 10 rhombs. This decomposition is based on a Petrie polygon projection of a 10-cube, with 45 of 11520 faces. The list OEIS: A006245 enumerates the number of solutions as 18,410,581,880, including up to 20-fold rotations and chiral forms in reflection.

Related polygons An icosagram is a 20-sided star polygon, represented by symbol {20/n}. There are three regular forms given by Schläfli symbols: {20/3}, {20/7}, and {20/9}. There are also five regular star figures (compounds) using the same vertex arrangement: 2{10}, 4{5}, 5{4}, 2{10/3}, 4{5/2}, and 10{2}.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Icosagon illustration
Icosagon illustration
Icosagon illustration
Icosagon illustration
Icosagon: Icosagon with given side length, animation (The construction is very similar to that of decagon with given side length)
Icosagon with given side length, animation (The construction is very similar to that of decagon with given side length)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Icosagon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Icosagon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Icosagon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Icosagon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Icosagon

In research
Icosagon appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Icosagon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Icosagon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Constructible polygons, Polygons by the number of sides, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Icosagon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Icosagon in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Icosagon means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Icosagon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Icosagon in simple terms?

In geometry, an icosagon or 20-gon is a twenty-sided polygon. The sum of any icosagon's interior angles is 3240 degrees.

Why does Icosagon matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Icosagon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Icosagon.

Tags

  • Constructible polygons
  • Polygons by the number of sides

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