Apothem
Pronunciation: /ˈæpəˌθɛm/ Explain
Click on the blue points and drag them to change the figure.
How many apothems does a pentagon have?
| Manipulative 1 - Apothem and Sagitta Created with GeoGebra. |
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An apothem of a
regular polygon
is a
line segment
from the center of the polygon to the
midpoint
of one of its sides. An apothem is always
perpendicular
to the side that contains the midpoint. Since the midpoint of each side of a regular
polygon is
intersected
by the incircle, an apothem is a radius of the incircle. The
sagitta is the line segment from the edge of the
regular polygon to the edge of the circumcircle of the regular polygon that
is collinear with the apothem.
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Click on the blue points and drag them to change the figure.
| Manipulative 2 - Apothem and Sagitta of a Circle Created with GeoGebra. |
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The apothem of a
chord
of a circle is a line segment from the center
of the circle to the midpoint of a chord of the circle. The
sagitta is the line segment from the midpoint
of the chord to the edge of the circle that is collinear with the
apothem. Together, the sagitta and the apothem make a radius of the circle.
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References
- McAdams, David E.. All Math Words Dictionary, apothem. 2nd Classroom edition 20150108-4799968. pg 17. Life is a Story Problem LLC. January 8, 2015. Buy the book
Cite this article as:
McAdams, David E. Apothem. 12/21/2018. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. https://www.allmathwords.org/en/a/apothem.html.
Image Credits
Revision History
12/21/2018: Reviewed and corrected IPA pronunication. (
McAdams, David E.)
6/14/2018: Removed broken links, changed Geogebra links to work with Geogebra 5, updated license, implemented new markup. (
McAdams, David E.)
10/23/2010: Added text for sagitta of a regular polygon. (
McAdams, David E.)
1/6/2010: Added "References". (
McAdams, David E.)
12/19/2008: Clarified wording of a apothem of a chord of a circle. Added vocabulary link to 'chord' (
McAdams, David E.)
4/18/2008: Initial version. (
McAdams, David E.)