• Choose a polygon, and reshape it by dragging the vertices to new locations. As the figure changes shape, the angle measures will automatically update.
• Animation: For triangles and quadrilaterals, you can play an animated clip by clicking the image in the lower right corner. This movie will provide a visual proof for the value of the angle sum.

 

Begin by exploring triangles and quadrilaterals. As you drag the vertices to reshape these polygons, occasionally play the animated clip in the lower right corner.

• Is there a different result for different shapes?
• Test your conjecture by creating a square, rhombus, parallelogram, and other quadrilaterals. For each type of shape, play the movie. How does the result change?

Use the applet to examine pentagons, hexagons, heptagons and octagons, too. Do you notice a pattern? How does the sum of the angles change as the number of sides changes?

• What happens to the angle sum as you reshape the polygon by moving the original vertices?
• Find a formula that relates the number of sides (n) to the sum of the interior angle measures?