Year 8: Geometric Reasoning

Dr J Frost (jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk)
Objectives: Be able to classify shapes, reason about sides and
angles, and find interior/exterior angles of polygons.

Last modified: 10th April 2016

STARTER: Identifying 2D polygons
! A polygon is a 2D shape with?straight sides.
Sides:

3 Triangle
?
Equilateral ?
Isosceles ?
Scalene

4 ?
Quadrilateral ?
Square ?
Rectangle ?
Rhombus

?
Parallelogram ?
Trapezium ?
Kite ?
Arrowhead

5 ?
Pentagon 8 ?
Octagon 12 ?
Dodecagon
6 ?
Hexagon 9 ?
Nonagon 20 ?
Icosagon
7 ?
Heptagon 10 ?
Decagon
A big debate we had in the maths office…

Is a square a trapezium?
It depends on the definition:
• “A trapezium is a quadrilateral with exactly one pair of parallel sides.” or
• “A trapezium is a quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides.”

A square would be a trapezium under the second definition. It seems odd that we
might consider shapes with two pairs of parallel as trapeziums (as we’d usually call
them parallelograms), but otherwise we’d have the following situation…

Click to Start
Trapezium?
Bromanimation
NO
YES This lack of continuity (i.e. not being a trapezium for
one specific case) is considered a bad thing in maths, so
the weight of evidence is that a square IS a trapezium,
and thus the second definition is the correct one.
 Categorising Activity Shape Description
2D Shape
Polygon A 2D shape with straight
Trapezium
edges.
Ellipse (Also known as an oval)
Square Circle
Quadrilateral Polygon with four edges.
We’ve seen that all squares are trapeziums. We Square Regular polygon with four
might use the arrow to mean “is a type of”. sides.
Using a full page of your book, form a ‘tree’ of Rectangle Two pairs of parallel sides, all
all the shape classifications on the right. You angles equal.
may work in pairs.
Oblong All rectangles which are not
‘2D Shape’ should be at the top of your squares.
tree/page, i.e.:
Trapezium Quadrilateral with at least one
pair of parallel sides.
Parallelogram Quadrilateral with two pairs of
2D Shape parallel sides.
Rhombus Quadrilateral with all sides the
same length.
Polygon
Kite Quadrilateral where sides in
adjacent pairs are equal in
length.
Solution
2D Shape

Ellipse Polygon

Circle Quadrilateral

Trapezium
Kite
Parallelogram

Rectangle Rhombus

Oblong Square
Properties of quadrilaterals

Diagonals Diagonals
Lines of Num pairs of
Shape Name always perpen-
symmetry parallel sides
equal? dicular?
Square 4 ? 2 ? Yes? Yes?

Rectangle 2 ? 2 ? Yes? No ?

Kite 1 ? 0 ? No ? Yes?

Rhombus 2 ? 2 ? No ? Yes?

Parallelogram 0 ? 2 ? No ? No ?

Arrowhead 1 ? 0 ? No ? Yes?
RECAP: Interior angles of quadrilateral
?
The interior angles of a quadrilateral add up to 360.
Parallelogram
1 2

100° y
x

x
50°

x = 130°
? ? y = 80°
x = 100° ?
3 4
Trapezium
Kite
x = 120°
? x
x
95° 55°
60°
x = 105°
?
Sum of interior angles

n=3 n=4

Total of interior Total of interior

angles = 180° angles = 360°

Can you guess what the angles add up to in a

pentagon? How would you prove it?
Sum of interior angles

Click to
Bromanimate

We can cut a pentagon

into three triangles.

The sum of the interior

angles of the triangles is:

3 x 180° = 540°

! For an n-sided shape, the sum of the interior angles is:

180(n-2)
?
Test Your Understanding
A regular decagon (10 sides).
160° x
x

130° 80°
120°

x = 140°
?
x = 144°
? 120°
40° x
100°

x = 240°
? 40°
Exercise 1
1a b c

?
x = 75
?
x = 25

d
e f

?
x = 222

?
x = 309
Exercise 1
g h i

?
x = 120 ?
x = 252
?
x = 54

2 The total of the interior angles of a polygon is . How many sides

does it have?
?
N1 The interior angle of a regular polygon is . How many sides does
it have?

?
Exercise 1

N2 If a n-sided polygon has exactly 3 obtuse angles (i.e. 90 <  < 180), then
determine the possible values of (Hint: determine the possible range for
the sum of the interior angles, and use these inequalities to solve).

?
Interior Angles

An exterior angle of a polygon is an angle

between the line extended from one side,
and an adjacent side.

Which of these are exterior angles of the polygon?

?
NO ?
YES NO?
Interior Angles

To defeat Kim Jon Il, Matt Damon

must encircle his pentagonal palace.
What angle does Matt Damon turn
in total?

360°
?

! The sum of the exterior angles of

any polygon is 360°.

Click to Start
Damonimation
Interior Angles
If the pentagon is regular, then all the
exterior angles are clearly the same.
Therefore:

Exterior angle of pentagon

= 360 / 5?= 72°

Interior angle of pentagon

? = 108°
= 180 – 72
Angles in Regular Polygons

Num Sides Name of Exterior Interior

Regular Polygon Angle Angle
3 Triangle 120° ? 60° ?
4 Quadrilateral 90° ? 90° ?
5 Pentagon 72° ? 108° ?
6 Hexagon 60° ? 120° ?
7 Heptagon 51.4° ? 128.6°?
8 Octagon 45° ? 135° ?
9 Nonagon 40° ? 140° ?
10 Decagon 36° ? 144° ?

Bonus Question: What is the largest number of sides a shape can

have such that its interior angle is an integer?

? angle will be 179°.

360 sides. The interior
Test Your Understanding
GCSE question

The diagram shows a regular hexagon and a regular octagon.

Calculate the size of the angle marked x.

You must show all your working.

x = 105°
?
GCSE Question

Hint: Fill in what angles

you do know. You can
work out what the
interior angle of Tile A
will be.

Question: The pattern is made from two types of tiles, tile A and tile B.
Both tile A and tile B are regular polygons.
Work out the number of sides tile A has.
Sides = 12
?
Test Your Understanding
Q1 Q2 50
85 75

a 80

80 80
c

?
a = 110° c = 70°?

Q3 What is the exterior Q4 The interior angle of a regular

angle of a 180-sided polygon is 165. How many sides
regular polygon? does it have?
? = 2
360 ÷ 180 Interior angle = 180 – 165 = 15
n = 360 ÷ 15 = 24
?
Alternative method:
Total interior angle = 165n
Then solve 180(n – 2) = 165n
Exercise 2
Q3
Q1 Determine how many sides a regular
polygon with the following exterior
angle would have:
30 ?
12 sides
45 ?
8 sides
12
9
?
30 sides
40 sides
The diagram shows a regular hexagon and a
regular octagon. Calculate the size of the angle
? marked. You must show all your working.
Interior angle of hexagon: 180 – (360/6) = 120
Q2 Determine how many sides a regular ?
Interior angle of octagon: 180 – (360/8) = 135
polygon with the following interior x = 360 – 120 – 135 = 105
angle would have:
Q4
156 ?
15 sides The pattern is made
162 ?
20 sides from two types of
tiles, tile A and tile B.
144
175
?
10 sides
72 sides
Both tile A and tile B
? are regular polygons.
Work out the number
of sides tile A has.
Interior angle of A =
(360 – 60)/2 = 150
?
Exterior angle = 30
Sides = 360/30 = 12
Exercise 2
Q5 A regular polygon is
surrounded by squares and
regular hexagons, alternating
between the two. How many
sides does this shape have?
Interior angle = 360 – 90 – 120 = 150
?
n = 360 / 30 = 12 sides
Q6 Find all regular polygons which tessellate (when
restricted only to one type of polygon).
?
Equilateral triangle, square, hexagon.
By thinking about interior angles, prove that the
N regular polygons you identified above are the only
regular polygons which tessellate.
Method 1: The possible exterior angles of a
regular polygons are the factors of 360 less than
180: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30,
36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120
This gives interior angles of 179, 178, ..., 140,
135, 120, 108, 90, 60.
To tessellate, the interior angle has to divide 360.
Only 120, 90 and 60 does. This corresponds to a
?
hexagon, square and equilateral triangle.
Method 2: 360 divided by the interior angle must
give a whole number, in order for the regular
polygon to tessellate. Interior angle is 180 –
(360/n), so 360 / (180 – (360/n)) = k for some
constant k. Simplifying this gives kn – 2k – 2n = 0
This factorises to (k – 2)(n – 2) = 4
This only numbers which multiply to give 4 are 1
x 4 or 2 x 2 or 4 x 1. This n = 6, 4 or 3 in each case.
TEST YOUR UNDERSTANDING
Vote with your diaries!

A B C D
What is the total exterior angle of a
polygon in terms of the number of
sides n?

360
360 360n 180(n-2)
n
What is the total interior angle of a 20
sided polygon?

360 3600 3240 6480

The interior angle of a polygon is 178.
How many sides does it have?

20 40 90 180
What is the interior angle of a 90 sided
regular polygon?

172 176 178 179

 Determine the angle .

61
29
105
120

215 223 225 235