How do you calculate angles of a polygon?

1 Answer
Jan 29, 2016

Given only the lengths of polygon's sides, calculation of angles is possible for triangles and regular #N#-sided polygons.
In other cases angles cannot be defined.

Explanation:

In case of triangle, given all three sides #a#, #b# and #c#, we can use Theorem of Sines to get to the angles #alpha#, #beta# and #gamma = pi - alpha - beta#:
#a/sin(alpha) = b/sin(beta) = c/sin(gamma)#

For two unknown angles #alpha# and #beta# we have two equations:
#a/sin(alpha) = b/sin(beta)#
#a/sin(alpha) = c/sin(pi-alpha-beta)#
Solving them will give angles.

For #N#-sided polygons the interior angles are easily determined by a formula
#alpha = (N-2)/N*180^o#