Polygon comes from the Greek and means - many angles, because all simple polygons have as many sides as they have angles. The simplest polygon, the triangle, has three interior angles (and three exterior angles) so it also has three sides.
You can have polygons with so many sides, they appear to be circles even when they are not. Once you get above 10 sides, most mathematics students just say "n-gon," where n is the number of sides or interior angles, as in a "18-gon," or a "25-gon," rather than trying to remember the Greek-origin name.
Regular Polygon
To be a regular polygon, the flat, closed, straight-sided shape must also have another property. Every interior and exterior angle in the regular polygon is equal to every other interior and exterior angle, and every side is equal in length to every other side. |
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