When you studied geometry in high school, was the kite shape covered?
Geometry is one branch of mathematics that I have stayed away from and I would like to know more about it. Though I would like eventually cover non-Euclidean geometries, I am reviewing the basics with a book Geometry for Dummies.
I am familiar with most of the material so far, but they mention the kite shape as a special type of quadrilateral, which was not mentioned in my high school class. One thing of interest is that a rhombus is both a type of parallelogram and a type of kite, so it has properties that combine the two.
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I loved geometry since 6th grade. I recall kite shape being covered in one class.
The kite is a quadrilateral that has two pairs of equal adjacent sides that are equal in length. When all sides have equal length, the kite will also be a rhombus. When all angles are right angles (90°), the kite will also be a square.
I don’t remember studying it, but that might be my memory.
I think of a kite as being a smaller triangle on top than on the bottom. The bottom part is more elongated.
We studied quadrilaterals, including those where the sides were not parallel, but were symmetrical along the longest diagonal. That was closer to a “kite shape” (also known as a “diamond”) than a rhombus.
You know, from my years of teaching and such, I have a number of textbooks and I’ve been wanting to go back and review my geometry as a precursor to reviewing some higher maths. And now I’m going to have to look for this very question.
It was covered, but I don’t remember it having a name, or getting any special attention, or having any discussed theorems about it, but I could be mis-remembering . . .
Oh, hmm . . . I might actually have my 9th grade geometry textbook lying around . . . if I see it, I’ll take a look.
A traditional “kite” is essentially not a parallelogram, and only symmetrical along the center axis. It’s two line segments that cross at right angles, the shorter one equally bisected, and then the corners connected.
Yes with Mr Holton, that was 60 years ago. Trig for land surveying. . . . .
@Zaku , The diagonals of kites are at right angles. The diagonals of parallelograms bisect each other. Therefore the diagonals of a rhombus are perpendicular bisectors of each other.
I don’t know. I always got sleepy in that class. Seriously.
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