High School Math : How to find the length of a side of a polygon

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for High School Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : How To Find The Length Of A Side Of A Polygon

If the area of a regular octagon is 160 and the apothem is 8, what is the side length?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To find the side length from the area of an octagon and the apothem we must use the area of a polygon which is

First plug in our numbers for area and the apothem to get 

Then multiply to get 

Then divide both sides by 4 to get the perimeter of the figure. 

When we have the perimeter of a regular polygon, to find the side length we must divide by the number of sides of the polygon, in this case 8. 

After dividing we find the side length is  

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