Heptadecagon facts for kids
A heptadecagon (say "hep-ta-DEK-a-gon") is a special flat shape that has 17 straight sides and 17 corners. It's also sometimes called a septadecagon or a 17-gon.
Regular Heptadecagon
If a heptadecagon is regular, it means all its 17 sides are exactly the same length. Also, all its 17 corners (or angles) are the same size. Each corner in a regular heptadecagon measures about 158.82 degrees. If you add up all the angles inside a regular heptadecagon, they would total 2700 degrees!
Area
The area of a shape is the amount of space it covers. For a regular heptadecagon, there's a special math formula to figure out its area if you know the length of one of its sides.
Heptadecagon Construction
It's possible to draw a perfect regular heptadecagon using only a compass and a ruler. This amazing discovery was made in 1796 by a famous mathematician named Carl Friedrich Gauss. He was only 19 years old at the time!
Because of this important discovery, there's a memorial statue of Gauss in Göttingen, Germany, that has a regular heptadecagon as its base.
You can see how a heptadecagon can be drawn in the animation below:
Related pages
Images for kids
-
Publication by C. F. Gauss in Intelligenzblatt der allgemeinen Literatur-Zeitung
-
Construction according to Duane W. DeTemple with Carlyle circles, animation 1 min 57 s
-
Symmetries of a regular heptadecagon. Vertices are colored by their symmetry positions. Blue mirror lines are drawn through vertices and edges. Gyration orders are given in the center.
See also
In Spanish: Heptadecágono para niños
