Polygon Calculator
Enter the number of sides and side length (or circumradius) to find area, perimeter, angles, apothem, and diagonals for any regular polygon.
🔷 What is a Regular Polygon?
A regular polygon is a flat, closed shape with all sides equal in length and all interior angles equal in measure. The simplest regular polygon is the equilateral triangle (3 sides). Other common examples include the square (4 sides), pentagon (5), hexagon (6), heptagon (7), octagon (8), nonagon (9), and decagon (10). This calculator supports regular polygons with 3 to 20 sides.
Regular polygons appear throughout architecture, nature, and engineering. The hexagonal tiles on bathroom floors, the cross-section of a bolt head (hexagon), the shape of a stop sign (octagon), honeycomb cells (hexagons again), and the Pentagon building in Washington D.C. are all regular or near-regular polygons. In mathematics, regular polygons are used to approximate the area of a circle (as the number of sides approaches infinity, the area approaches pi times r squared).
A key distinction is between regular and irregular polygons. An irregular polygon has sides or angles that differ from each other. A rectangle, for example, is an irregular polygon (unless it is a square). This calculator is specifically for regular polygons where the high degree of symmetry allows simple, exact formulas. For irregular polygons, you would need to specify all side lengths and angles separately.
The properties of a regular polygon are fully determined by just two values: the number of sides n and one measurement (such as the side length or circumradius). Once these two values are known, every other property follows from exact trigonometric formulas. This is what makes regular polygons so mathematically elegant and practically useful.
📐 Formulas
📖 How to Use This Calculator
Steps
💡 Example Calculations
Example 1 - Regular Hexagon with Side 6 cm
Find all properties of a regular hexagon with side length 6 cm.
Example 2 - Regular Octagon with Side 4 m
Find the area and angles of a regular stop-sign octagon with side 4 m.
Example 3 - Pentagon Inscribed in a Circle of Radius 10 cm
A regular pentagon is inscribed in a circle with radius 10 cm. Find its side length and area.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
🔗 Related Calculators
What is the formula for the area of a regular polygon?
Area = (n x s^2 x cot(pi/n)) / 4, where n is the number of sides and s is the side length. Equivalently, Area = (perimeter x apothem) / 2 = n x s x a / 2 where a is the apothem.
What is the interior angle of a regular polygon?
Interior angle = (n-2) x 180 / n degrees. Triangle: 60 degrees, square: 90 degrees, pentagon: 108 degrees, hexagon: 120 degrees, octagon: 135 degrees. The sum of all interior angles is (n-2) x 180 degrees.
What is the circumradius of a regular polygon?
The circumradius R is the radius of the circumscribed circle (the circle that passes through all vertices). R = s / (2 x sin(pi/n)) where s is the side length and n is the number of sides.
What is the apothem of a regular polygon?
The apothem (inradius) is the perpendicular distance from the center to the midpoint of any side. Apothem = s / (2 x tan(pi/n)) = R x cos(pi/n). It is the radius of the inscribed circle.
How many diagonals does a polygon have?
A polygon with n sides has n(n-3)/2 diagonals. A triangle has 0, a square has 2, a pentagon has 5, a hexagon has 9, an octagon has 20.
What is a regular polygon?
A regular polygon has all sides equal in length and all interior angles equal. Examples include the equilateral triangle (3 sides), square (4), pentagon (5), hexagon (6), heptagon (7), octagon (8), nonagon (9), and decagon (10).
What is the exterior angle of a regular polygon?
The exterior angle is 360 / n degrees. The exterior angle is always supplementary to the interior angle: exterior angle + interior angle = 180 degrees. The sum of all exterior angles of any convex polygon is always 360 degrees.
How do I find the side length from the circumradius?
Use side length s = 2 x R x sin(pi/n), where R is the circumradius and n is the number of sides. For example, a regular hexagon with R = 10 has s = 2 x 10 x sin(pi/6) = 2 x 10 x 0.5 = 10.