Apothem

Not to be confused with Apophthegm.
Apothem of a hexagon
Graphs of side, s; apothem, a; and area, A of regular polygons of n sides and circumradius 1, with the base, b of a rectangle with the same area. The green line shows the case n = 6.

The apothem (sometimes abbreviated as apo[1]) of a regular polygon is a line segment from the center to the midpoint of one of its sides. Equivalently, it is the line drawn from the center of the polygon that is perpendicular to one of its sides. The word "apothem" can also refer to the length of that line segment and comes from the ancient Greek ἀπόθεμα ("put away, put aside"), made of ἀπό ("off, away") and θέμα ("that which is laid down"), indicating a generic line written down.[2] Regular polygons are the only polygons that have apothems. Because of this, all the apothems in a polygon will be congruent.

  1. ^ Shaneyfelt, Ted V. "德博士的 Notes About Circles, ज्य, & कोज्य: What in the world is a hacovercosine?". Hilo, Hawaii: University of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  2. ^ "Definition of APOTHEM". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2022-02-17.