Polygon with increasing angles

Geometry Level 2

The interior angles of a convex polygon are in arithmetic progression . The smallest angle is 12 0 120^\circ and the common difference is 5 5^\circ .

Find the number of sides of the polygon.


The answer is 9.

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2 solutions

Yash Jain
Mar 14, 2016

Let there be n n sides of the polygon. Then the sum of its interior angles is given by

S n = ( n 2 ) × 18 0 S_{n} = (n-2) \times 180^\circ .

Also, the sum of all the terms of an arithmetic progression is given by

S n = n 2 [ 2 a 1 + ( n 1 ) d ] S_{n} = \frac{n}{2}[2a_{1}+ (n-1)d] where a 1 = 12 0 a_{1}=120^\circ and d = 5 d=5^\circ

Equating both the equations:

( n 2 ) × 18 0 = n 2 [ 2 a 1 + ( n 1 ) d ] (n-2) \times 180^\circ = \frac{n}{2}[2a_{1} + (n-1)d]

On solving, we will get two values for n 16 , 9 n \Rightarrow 16, 9

But if the polygon is of 16 sides, the 1 3 t h 13^{th} angle will be 18 0 180^\circ , which is not allowed.

Hence, the answer is 9 \Rightarrow \boxed{9}

Why can't the 16th angle be 195?

The polygon could be concave, in which the angle could be up to 360.

Note: I believe you mean that the angle will be 180, which is not allowed.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 3 months ago

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Oh yes. The 1 3 t h 13^{th} angle will be 18 0 180^\circ , which would mean a straight line. I have edited my solution. Thanks.

Yash Jain - 5 years, 2 months ago

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Great! Thanks :)

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 2 months ago

The sum of all external angles is 360.So 60 + 55 +50 +...=360. SUM of PA >>> (60 + 60 -5(n-1))n/2=360>>>solving this we find 2 answers: 16 and 9.Calculating the last angle of the 16th side polygon (60-16*5= -20) we see that he cannot exist because he is negative , so the answer is just the 9

Can you use latex, I liked your solution too! (+1)

Prince Loomba - 4 years, 11 months ago

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