Sum of Interior angles of an n-sided polygon

There are many methods to find the sum of the interior angles of an n-sided convex
polygon. Most books discuss only one or two ways.

Method 1

From any one of the vertices, say A1,

construct diagonals to other vertices.

There are altogether (n-2) triangles.

Sum of angles of each triangle = 180

 Sum of interior angles of n-sided polygon
= (n-2) x 180

Method 2

Fro
m any point P on the line segment, say
A1 A2, construct lines to the vertices A3, A4,
…, An.

There are altogether (n-1) triangles.

 Sum of angles of each triangle = 180

Please note that there is a straight angle

A1PA2 = 180 containing angles which
are not interior angles of the given polygon.

Sum of interior angles of n-sided polygon

= (n-1) x 180- 180 = (n-2) x 180

Method 3

From any one point P inside the polygon,

 construct lines to the vertices.

There are altogether n triangles.

Sum of angles of each triangle = 180

Please note that there is an angle at a

point = 360 around P containing angles
which are not interior angles of the given
polygon.

Sum of interior angles of n-sided

polygon
= n x 180- 360 = (n-2) x 180

Method 4

The point P chosen may not be on the

vertex, side or inside the polygon.
It can even be a point outside the
polygon.
 There are altogether (n-1) triangles.

Sum of angles of each triangle = 180

Please note that the angles in triangle

PA1A2 = 180 are not interior angles of the
given polygon.

Sum of interior angles of n-sided polygon

= (n-1) x 180- 180 = (n-2) x 180
 Method 5

Before we carry on with our proof,

let us mention that the sum of the exterior
angles of an n-sided convex polygon =
360

I would like to call this the Spider

Theorem.

Imagine you are a spider and you are

now in the point A1 and facing A2.
 You crawl to A2 and turn an exterior angle, shown in red, and face A3.
You then crawl from A2 to A3 and turn another exterior angle and face A4.

You carry on with the journey and turn all exterior angles.
Lastly you come back to point A1 and face A2 again.

Aha! You have turn a complete circle, which is 360.

And the intelligent spider has proved that the sum of the exterior angles of an n-sided
convex polygon = 360

Now, let us come back to our interior angles theorem.

You can see that, by considering the red and blue angles in the diagram, the sum of
any one of the interior angle and the adjacent exterior angle is 180. (adjacent angle on
straight line)

There are n sides in the polygon and therefore n straight angles.

Sum of interior angles + sum of exterior angles = n x 180

Sum of interior angles + 360= n x 180
Sum of interior angles = n x 180- 360 = (n-2) x 180
 Method 6

This method needs some knowledge

of difference equation. It is a bit difficult but
I think you are smart enough to master it.

Let xn be the sum of interior angles

of a n-sided polygon.

So you may say that xn-1 is the sum of

interior angles of an (n-1)-sided polygon.

As in the diagram, if you cut away one

vertex, say A1, of an n-sided polygon you can
get an (n-1) sided polygon, A2A3A4…An.

The angle sum of the triangle A1A2An=

180
So, you get the difference equation:
Similarly,

………

Lastly, we get the angle sum of triangle

Adding up all the (n-2) equalities, and canceling all the terms, we get
In the previous post, we have shown that the sum of the interior angles of a polygon with sides is degrees. In this post,
we explore the exterior angles of a polygon. The exterior angle is formed by extending the side of the polygon as shown in the following
figure.

One observation about the exterior angles is that their angle sum is always . For instance, in the pentagon, the sum of the
interior angles is . The next question is, is this observation always true? Is this always true for all polygons, even non-
regular ones? Try a few more examples by drawing or by using a geometry software.
Scratch Work
First we note that the measure of the exterior angle is

180 – measure of adjacent interior angle.

Second, the sum of the interior angles of a polygon is . Let us say, if and are measures of the angles of a 3-sided
polygon (a triangle), then . Similarly, if we have a quadrilateral,
. In general, if we have a polygon with sides, the equation

We will use these notations and equations so we can prove the theorems later, but before that…

Don’t Panic!
The previous equation only shows the sum of all the interior angles of a polygon with sides. The 3-dot symbol is used
to indicate that there are terms in between that were not written. The 3-dot symbol is used to shorten the equation. For
instance, if we write , we mean the sum of all the positive integers from to .
Theorem
The sum of the exterior angles of a polygon is .

Proof
We add all the exterior angles of a polygon with sides. From above, we have learned that the angle measure of a regular polygon is
180 minus the measure of its adjacent interior angle. Therefore, the exterior angle sum of a polygon is

.
Regrouping we have

Since there are ‘s, we have

But from above, , so

Simplifying, we have .

Therefore, the sum of the exterior angles of a polygon with sides is

We have learned that the angle sum of a triangle is . We have also learned that the angle sum of a quadrilateral is . In
getting the angle sum of quadrilaterals, we divided the quadrilateral into two triangles by drawing a diagonal. In this post, we use this
method to find the angle sum of the pentagon and other polygons.
Let us extend the method stated above to pentagon (5-sided polygon). Clearly, we can divide the pentagon into three non-overlapping
triangles by drawing two diagonals. Since each triangle has an angle sum of , the angle sum of a pentagon, which is composed of
three triangles, is .

Using the method above, we can see the pattern on the table below. The sum of a polygon with sides is degrees. Next, we
summarize the polygon angle sum theorem and prove it.
Theorem
The angle sum of a polygon with sides is 180(n-2) degrees.

Proof
A polygon with sides can be divided into triangles. Since the angle sum of a triangle is , the angle sum of a polygon
is .