Regular Spherical Heptagons

Geometry Level 4

A regular spherical heptagon, having each side as a great circle arc of 6 cm 6 \text{ cm} , is drawn on a spherical surface of radius 15 cm 15\text{ cm} . What is its interior angle (in degree)?


The answer is 133.646038.

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2 solutions

Sundar R
Sep 14, 2017

Given that,

Number of sides of regular spherical heptagon, n = 7 n=7 , arc length of side a = 6 c m a=6 cm , radius of spherical surface, R = 15 c m R=15 cm

Now, using HCR's formula for regular spherical polygon

sin ( θ 2 ) cos ( a 2 R ) sec ( π n ) = 1 \Large{\sin\left(\frac{\theta}{2}\right)\cos\left(\frac{a}{2R}\right)\sec\left(\frac{\pi}{n}\right)=1}

θ = 2 sin 1 ( 1 cos ( a 2 R ) sec ( π n ) ) \implies \theta=2\sin^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{\Large{\cos\left(\frac{a}{2R}\right)\sec\left(\frac{\pi}{n}\right)}}\right)

Substituting the corresponding values, the interior angle θ \theta of regular spherical heptagon is given as

θ = 2 sin 1 ( 1 cos ( 6 2 × 15 ) sec ( π 7 ) ) = 2 sin 1 ( 1 cos ( 1 5 ) sec ( π 7 ) ) 133.64603 8 \theta=2\sin^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{\Large{\cos\left(\frac{6}{2\times 15}\right)\sec\left(\frac{\pi}{7}\right)}}\right)=2\sin^{-1}\left(\frac{1}{\Large{\cos\left(\frac{1}{5}\right)\sec\left(\frac{\pi}{7}\right)}}\right)\approx 133.646038^{\circ}

Could you provide justification for your formula?

Agnishom Chattopadhyay - 4 years, 10 months ago

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Here is the justification/geometrical derivation of formula for all the regular spherical polygons

Harish Chandra Rajpoot - 4 years, 8 months ago

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