construction of regular 2n-gon from regular n-gon


Given a regularPlanetmathPlanetmathPlanetmath n-gon (http://planetmath.org/RegularPolygon), one can construct a regular 2n-gon using compass and straightedge. This procedure will be demonstrated by starting with a regular pentagon; the procedure will thus produce a regular decagonMathworldPlanetmath.

The procedure is as follows:

  1. 1.

    Bisect two of the interior anglesMathworldPlanetmath of the regular polygon. These angle bisectorsMathworldPlanetmath will intersect at the center (http://planetmath.org/Center9) of the regular polygon.

  2. 2.

    Connect each vertex of the regular polygon to the center.

  3. 3.

    Construct the circumscribed circle of the regular polygon.

  4. 4.

    Bisect each of the central anglesMathworldPlanetmath of the circle to obtain the points where the angle bisectors intersect the circle.

  5. 5.

    Connect the dots to form the regular 2n-gon. In the picture below, all drawn figures except for the original polygonMathworldPlanetmathPlanetmath, the circle, and the formed polygon are drawn in cyan to emphasize the three figures that are not dashed.

This construction is justified because the triangles formed by the drawn radii of the circle and the drawn (blue) polygon are congruent by SAS (note that all of the central angles have measure (http://planetmath.org/AngleMeasure) 3602n), giving that all of the sides and all of the interior angles of the drawn polygon are congruent.

If you are interested in seeing the rules for compass and straightedge constructions, click on the provided.

Title construction of regular 2n-gon from regular n-gon
Canonical name ConstructionOfRegular2ngonFromRegularNgon
Date of creation 2013-03-22 17:19:32
Last modified on 2013-03-22 17:19:32
Owner Wkbj79 (1863)
Last modified by Wkbj79 (1863)
Numerical id 19
Author Wkbj79 (1863)
Entry type Algorithm
Classification msc 51M15
Classification msc 51-00