Perimeter and polygon are two concepts we've studied since the early years of our school life, aren't they? This time, in order to learn how to measure polygon perimeters, we will relate these two mathematical concepts. For that, let's remember what each one of them is.
The perimeter is the length of the line or outline of a particular figure (polygon). Or, it is the sum of the measurements of the sides of a polygon.
Polygons are closed figures formed by straight line segments and are characterized by the following elements: angles, vertices, diagonals and sides.
These two concepts, simply mentioned, are enough for us to understand the calculation of the perimeter of a polygon. Therefore, to calculate the perimeter of any polygon we just need to add the measure of the sides of that polygon.
So, let's see how to calculate this perimeter in a problem that involves polygons.
“A millionaire built his house in a luxury condominium. He wishes to surround the lot on which he built his mansion. See the panoramic view of this lot and calculate how many meters of fence it should buy.”
We saw in our study that perimeter is the length of the outline of a figure. The fence that the millionaire wants to place will make an outline in his lot, so it is necessary to calculate the perimeter of his lot.
And the perimeter we know how to calculate, right? As said, we must add the measure of the sides of this polygon.
Therefore, we must perform the following calculations:
Therefore, the perimeter of this lot is 320 meters and with that we can say that 320 meters of fence will be needed to surround the millionaire's lot.
See that the perimeter uses only the idea of adding measures, something easy and that is present in our daily lives.
By Gabriel Alessandro de Oliveira
Graduated in Mathematics
SchoolKids Team
