In
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
, an equilateral pentagon is a
polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
in the
Euclidean plane
In mathematics, the Euclidean plane is a Euclidean space of dimension two. That is, a geometric setting in which two real quantities are required to determine the position of each point ( element of the plane), which includes affine notions of ...
with
five sides of equal length. Its five vertex
angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two Ray (geometry), rays, called the ''Side (plane geometry), sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex (geometry), vertex'' of the angle.
Angles formed by two ...
s can take a range of sets of values, thus permitting it to form a family of pentagons. In contrast, the
regular pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°.
A pentagon may be simpl ...
is unique, because it is equilateral and moreover it is
equiangular (its five angles are equal; the measure is 108
degrees).
Four intersecting equal
circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...
s arranged in a closed chain are sufficient to determine a
convex
Convex or convexity may refer to:
Science and technology
* Convex lens, in optics
Mathematics
* Convex set, containing the whole line segment that joins points
** Convex polygon, a polygon which encloses a convex set of points
** Convex polytope ...
equilateral pentagon. Each circle's center is one of four vertices of the pentagon. The remaining vertex is determined by one of the intersection points of the first and the last circle of the chain.
Examples
Internal angles of a convex equilateral pentagon
When a convex equilateral pentagon is dissected into triangles, two of them appear as
isosceles
In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two sides of equal length. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at least'' two sides of equal length, the latter versio ...
(triangles in orange and blue) while the other one is more general (triangle in green). We assume that we are given the adjacent angles
and
.
According to the
law of sines
In trigonometry, the law of sines, sine law, sine formula, or sine rule is an equation relating the lengths of the sides of any triangle to the sines of its angles. According to the law,
\frac \,=\, \frac \,=\, \frac \,=\, 2R,
where , and a ...
the length of the
line
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Arts ...
dividing the green and blue triangles is:
:
The square of the length of the line dividing the orange and green triangles is:
:
According to the
law of cosines
In trigonometry, the law of cosines (also known as the cosine formula, cosine rule, or al-Kashi's theorem) relates the lengths of the sides of a triangle to the cosine of one of its angles. Using notation as in Fig. 1, the law of cosines states ...
, the
cosine of δ can be seen from the figure:
:
Simplifying, δ is obtained as function of α and β:
:
The remaining angles of the pentagon can be found geometrically: The remaining angles of the orange and blue triangles are readily found by noting that two angles of an isosceles triangle are equal while all three angles sum to 180°. Then
and the two remaining angles of the green triangle can be found from four equations stating that the sum of the angles of the pentagon is 540°, the sum of the angles of the green triangle is 180°, the angle
is the sum of its three components, and the angle
is the sum of its two components.
A
cyclic
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...
pentagon is
equiangular if and only if
In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (shortened as "iff") is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false.
The connective is bicondi ...
it has equal sides and thus is regular. Likewise, a
tangential
In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point. Leibniz defined it as the line through a pair of infinitely close points on the curve. More ...
pentagon is equilateral if and only if it has equal angles and thus is regular.
Tiling
![Equilateral Cairo tiling](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Equilateral_Cairo_tiling.svg)
There are two infinite families of equilateral convex
pentagons that tile the plane, one having two adjacent
supplementary angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex'' of the angle.
Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles are ...
s and the other having two non-adjacent supplementary angles. Some of those pentagons can tile in more than one way, and there is one sporadic example of an equilateral pentagon that can tile the plane but does not belong to either of those two families; its angles are roughly 89°16', 144°32.5', 70°55', 135°22', and 99°54.5', no two supplementary.
A two-dimensional mapping
Equilateral pentagons can intersect themselves either not at all, once, twice, or five times. The ones that don't intersect themselves are called
simple
Simple or SIMPLE may refer to:
*Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple
Arts and entertainment
* ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track
* "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018
* "Simple", a song by Johnn ...
, and they can be classified as either convex or concave. We here use the term "stellated" to refer to the ones that intersect themselves either twice or five times. We rule out, in this section, the equilateral pentagons that intersect themselves precisely once.
Given that we rule out the pentagons that intersect themselves once, we can plot the rest as a function of two variables in the two-dimensional
plane
Plane(s) most often refers to:
* Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft
* Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface
Plane or planes may also refer to:
Biology
* Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant
* Planes (gen ...
. Each pair of values (α, β) maps to a single point of the plane and also maps to a single pentagon.
The periodicity of the values of α and β and the condition α ≥ β ≥ δ permit the size of the mapping to be limited. In the plane with coordinate axes α and β, the equation α = β is a line dividing the plane in two parts (south border shown in orange in the drawing). The equation δ = β as a curve divides the plane into different sections (north border shown in blue).
Both borders enclose a continuous region of the plane whose points map to unique equilateral pentagons. Points outside the region just map to repeated pentagons—that is, pentagons that when
rotated or
reflected can match others already described. Pentagons that map exactly onto those borders have a
line of symmetry
In mathematics, reflection symmetry, line symmetry, mirror symmetry, or mirror-image symmetry is symmetry with respect to a reflection. That is, a figure which does not change upon undergoing a reflection has reflectional symmetry.
In 2D ther ...
.
Inside the region of unique mappings there are three types of pentagons: stellated, concave and convex, separated by new borders.
Stellated
The
stellated
In geometry, stellation is the process of extending a polygon in two dimensions, polyhedron in three dimensions, or, in general, a polytope in ''n'' dimensions to form a new figure. Starting with an original figure, the process extends specific el ...
pentagons have sides intersected by others. A common example of this type of pentagon is the
pentagram
A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...
. A condition for a pentagon to be stellated, or self-intersecting, is to have 2α + β ≤ 180°. So, in the mapping, the line 2α + β = 180° (shown in orange at the north) is the border between the regions of stellated and non-stellated pentagons. Pentagons which map exactly to this border have a vertex touching another side.
Concave
The
concave
Concave or concavity may refer to:
Science and technology
* Concave lens
* Concave mirror
Mathematics
* Concave function, the negative of a convex function
* Concave polygon, a polygon which is not convex
* Concave set
* The concavity
In ca ...
pentagons are non-stellated pentagons having at least one angle greater than 180°. The first angle which opens wider than 180° is γ, so the equation γ = 180° (border shown in green at right) is a curve which is the border of the regions of concave pentagons and others, called convex. Pentagons which map exactly to this border have at least two consecutive sides appearing as a double length side, which resembles a pentagon degenerated to a
quadrilateral
In geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four edges (sides) and four corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''latus'', meaning "side". It is also called a tetragon, ...
.
Convex
The
convex
Convex or convexity may refer to:
Science and technology
* Convex lens, in optics
Mathematics
* Convex set, containing the whole line segment that joins points
** Convex polygon, a polygon which encloses a convex set of points
** Convex polytope ...
pentagons have all of their five angles smaller than 180° and no sides intersecting others. A common example of this type of pentagon is the
regular pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°.
A pentagon may be simpl ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Equilateral Pentagon
Types of polygons