In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon.
A regular polygon octagon has Schläfli symbol {8}. and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t{4}, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t{8} is a hexadecagon, {16}. A 3D analog of the octagon can be the rhombicuboctahedron with the triangular faces on it like the replaced edges, if one considers the octagon to be a truncated square.
If squares are constructed all internally or all externally on the sides of an octagon, then the midpoints of the segments connecting the centers of opposite squares form a quadrilateral that is both equidiagonal and orthodiagonal (that is, whose diagonals are equal in length and at right angles to each other).Dao Thanh Oai (2015), "Equilateral triangles and Kiepert perspectors in complex numbers", Forum Geometricorum 15, 105--114. http://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2015volume15/FG201509index.html
The midpoint polygon of a reference octagon has its eight vertices at the midpoints of the sides of the reference octagon. If squares are constructed all internally or all externally on the sides of the midpoint octagon, then the midpoints of the segments connecting the centers of opposite squares themselves form the vertices of a square.
In terms of the circumradius R, the area is
In terms of the apothem r (see also inscribed figure), the area is
These last two coefficients bracket the value of pi, the area of the unit circle.
The area can also be expressed as
where S is the span of the octagon, or the second-shortest diagonal; and a is the length of one of the sides, or bases. This is easily proven if one takes an octagon, draws a square around the outside (making sure that four of the eight sides overlap with the four sides of the square) and then takes the corner triangles (these are 45–45–90 triangles) and places them with right angles pointed inward, forming a square. The edges of this square are each the length of the base.
Given the length of a side a, the span S is
The area is then as above:
Expressed in terms of the span, the area is
Another simple formula for the area is
More often the span S is known, and the length of the sides, a, is to be determined, as when cutting a square piece of material into a regular octagon. From the above,
The two end lengths e on each side (the leg lengths of the triangles (green in the image) truncated from the square), as well as being may be calculated as
and the inradius is
The inradius can be calculated from the circumradius as
The formula for each of them follows from the basic principles of geometry. Here are the formulas for their length:
A regular octagon can be constructed using a straightedge and a compass, as 8 = 23, a power of two:
The regular octagon can be constructed with meccano bars. Twelve bars of size 4, three bars of size 5 and two bars of size 6 are required.
Each side of a regular octagon subtends half a right angle at the centre of the circle which connects its vertices. Its area can thus be computed as the sum of eight isosceles triangles, leading to the result:
for an octagon of side a.
Coxeter states that every zonogon (a 2 m-gon whose opposite sides are parallel and of equal length) can be dissected into m( m-1)/2 parallelograms.Coxeter, Mathematical recreations and Essays, Thirteenth edition, p.141
In particular this is true for regular polygons with evenly many sides, in which case the parallelograms are all rhombi. For the regular octagon, m=4, and it can be divided into 6 rhombs, with one example shown below. This decomposition can be seen as 6 of 24 faces in a Petrie polygon projection plane of the tesseract. The list defines the number of solutions as eight, by the eight orientations of this one dissection. These squares and rhombs are used in the Ammann–Beenker tilings.
A regular skew octagon is vertex-transitive with equal edge lengths. In three dimensions it is a zig-zag skew octagon and can be seen in the vertices and side edges of a square antiprism with the same D4d, 2+,8 symmetry, order 16.
On the regular octagon, there are eleven distinct symmetries. John Conway labels full symmetry as r16.John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, Chaim Goodman-Strauss, (2008) The Symmetries of Things, (Chapter 20, Generalized Schaefli symbols, Types of symmetry of a polygon pp. 275-278) The dihedral symmetries are divided depending on whether they pass through vertices ( d for diagonal) or edges ( p for perpendiculars) Cyclic symmetries in the middle column are labeled as g for their central gyration orders. Full symmetry of the regular form is r16 and no symmetry is labeled a1.
The most common high symmetry octagons are p8, an isogonal figure octagon constructed by four mirrors can alternate long and short edges, and d8, an isotoxal figure octagon constructed with equal edge lengths, but vertices alternating two different internal angles. These two forms are dual polygon of each other and have half the symmetry order of the regular octagon.
Each subgroup symmetry allows one or more degrees of freedom for irregular forms. Only the g8 subgroup has no degrees of freedom but can be seen as .
Architects such as John Andrews have used octagonal floor layouts in buildings for functionally separating office areas from building services, such as in the Intelsat Headquarters of Washington or Callam Offices in Canberra.
As an expanded square, it is also first in a sequence of expanded hypercubes:
Regularity
Area
The span, then, is equal to the silver ratio times the side, a.
Circumradius and inradius
(that is one-half the silver ratio times the side, a, or one-half the span, S)
Diagonality
Construction
Standard coordinates
Dissectibility
Regular
Isotoxal + Regular octagon dissected
Tesseract
4 rhombs and 2 squares
Skew
Petrie polygons
7-simplex
5-demicube
16-cell
Tesseract
Symmetry
The regular octagon has Dih8 symmetry, order 16. There are three dihedral subgroups: Dih4, Dih2, and Dih1, and four cyclic group: Z8, Z4, Z2, and Z1, the last implying no symmetry.
+ Symmetry The eleven symmetries of a regular octagon. Lines of reflections are blue through vertices, purple through edges, and gyration orders are given in the center. Vertices are colored by their symmetry position. + Example octagons by symmetry
Use
Derived figures
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Related polytopes
See also
External links
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