What is an Apothem?
What is an Apothem?
In geometry, an apothem is a line segment that runs from the center of a regular polygon to the midpoint of one of its sides. A regular polygon is a polygon whose sides are all the same length, and whose angles are all the same size. The word "apothem" can also refer to the length of that line segment.
How to Find the Apothem of a Polygon
To find the apothem of a regular polygon, you need to know two things: the length of one of the sides of the polygon, and the measure of one of its angles. Once you have those two values, you can use the following formula to find the apothem:
apothem = (side length) / (2 * tan(angle))
For example, let's say you have aregular hexagon whose sides are all 3 inches long, and whose angles are all 60 degrees. To find the apothem of this hexagon, plug those values into the formula like this:
apothem = (3 inches) / (2 * tan(60 degrees))
apothem = 3 inches / 2 * 1.73205
apothem = 2.59577 inches
Since the apothem is just a line segment, it doesn't have any width—it's literally just a length. So in this case, we would say that the apothem of our hexagon is 2.59577 inches long.
The apothem of a regular polygon is a line segment that runs from the center of the polygon to the midpoint of one side. The word "apothem" can also refer to the length of that line segment. To find the apothem, you need to know two things: the length of one side of the polygon, and the measure of one its angles. Once you have those values, you can use a simple formula to calculate the apothem.
FAQ
How do you find an apothem?
There are a few different ways to find the apothem of a polygon. One way is to use the formula: apothem = (side length) / (2 * tan(180/sides))where "sides" is the number of sides of the polygon. Another way to find the apothem is to draw a line from the center of the polygon to one of the vertices. The length of this line is the apothem. Finally, you can also construct a regular polygon and then measure the length of one of its diagonals. This measurement will be twice the apothem.
What is an apothem in geometry?
An apothem is a line segment that runs from the center of a polygon to the midpoint of one of its sides. The length of the apothem is typically used to help calculate other properties of the polygon, such as its area or perimeter.
What is an Apothem?
An apothem is a line segment that runs from the center of a polygon to the midpoint of one of its sides. The length of the apothem is typically used to help calculate other properties of the polygon, such as its area or perimeter.
Is the apothem the height?
No, the apothem is not the height. The height is a line segment that runs from the top of the polygon to the bottom. The length of the apothem is used to help calculate other properties of the polygon, such as its area or perimeter.
What is the apothem of a regular polygon?
The apothem of a regular polygon is a line segment that runs from the center of the polygon to the midpoint of one of its sides. The length of the apothem is used to help calculate other properties of the polygon, such as its area or perimeter.
