5.6.12

Apple Pages regular polygon?

I use the drawing tools in Apple Pages quite a bit. But every time I need a regular polygon, I struggle to find it on the shape menu. See why? The icon is the second from the bottom on the drop-down menu:


I simply cannot get myself to see this icon as a regular pentagon! I often select the 'diamond' (canted square) icon by mistake.
This is an interesting shape, though. It looks like it's the bottom half of a regular hexagon with half a square stuck on top of it. Does this shape have any interesting properties? What is the ratio of long edge:short edge? If the short edge is length 1, what are the lengths of the diagonals? These lengths and areas may not play well together; the hexagon is related to √3 while the square is related to √2. It might be fun to investigate anyways. The angles of this shape are 120°, 120°, 90°, 105° and 105°. And the average of these angle is... exactly 108°! The same as the angle measure of a regular pentagon! (Is this a surprise? Should it be a surprise?)

All right, all fun aside, the icon confuses me when I want a regular polygon (which happens more often that you'd think). I submitted feedback to Apple today asking them to change this icon... I'm just doing my job to promote good geometry. Do you use Apple Pages to make drawings? Has this bothered you? Here, tell Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/pages.html.

2 comments:

  1. I think at the time math is very difficult subject, parents should help kids in solving math problems. and about 12 sided I want to share a simple definition as-12 sided polygon is called as dodecagon, This is one type of regular polygons, it may be regular or irregular. It’s a 12 sided closed figure.
    Volume of a Sphere Formula

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  2. Well, depends what you mean by 'helping kids solving math problems'. It's challenging to help kids learn without telling them what to do, and most parents (most people) don't know enough about the rich and beautiful world of mathematics to be able to do this properly. I don't agree that math is a very difficult subject. It can be challenging, yet, but mathematics is a celebration of thought -- it is rewarding, creative and natural.

    Some people think I'm strange when I talk like this, but most of what is being taught in schools as 'mathematics' is actually algorithms, procedures and memorization -- almost no mathematics at all. And memorizing algorithms is difficult and boring. No wonder people have the wrong idea about mathematics.

    Several times a week I'll be sharing thoughts and bits of mathematics I see in the world around me. Mathematics is about wonder and seeing the world in a connected way. I hope in this way you can get a sense of what mathematics is!

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