Question

Difficulty: EasyPolygon Angles and Properties

A regular octagon has 8 congruent interior angles. What is the degree measure of one of these interior angles?

Answer: 135 degrees

Answer

The degree measure of one interior angle of a regular octagon is 135 degrees.
The interior angles of a regular octagon sum to 10801080^\circ because (82)×180=1080(8-2) \times 180^\circ = 1080^\circ. Since a regular octagon has 8 equal angles, dividing 10801080^\circ by 88 results in 135135^\circ per interior angle.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the number of sides in a regular octagon.
The number of sides, nn, is 88.
An octagon is defined as a polygon with 8 sides and 8 angles.
2
Calculate the sum of the interior angles of the octagon.
The sum of the interior angles is 10801080^\circ.
The sum of the interior angles of any convex polygon with nn sides is (n2)×180(n-2) \times 180^\circ. For n=8n = 8, this is (82)×180=6×180=1080(8 - 2) \times 180^\circ = 6 \times 180^\circ = 1080^\circ.
3
Find the measure of one interior angle by dividing the sum by the number of angles.
Each interior angle measures 135135^\circ.
A regular polygon has congruent interior angles. Therefore, dividing the total sum of 10801080^\circ by the 88 congruent angles yields the measure of each individual interior angle: 1080÷8=1351080^\circ \div 8 = 135^\circ.

Key Concept

The sum of the interior angles of an nn-sided convex polygon is (n2)×180(n-2) \times 180^\circ. For a regular polygon, each interior angle has a measure of (n2)×180n\frac{(n-2) \times 180^\circ}{n}.
Rate this question