A convex polygon has 54 diagonals. How many distinct triangles can be formed by joining an… — JAMB UTME

A convex polygon has $54$ diagonals. How many distinct triangles can be formed by joining any three of its vertices?

Answer: 220 triangles

220 distinct triangles

Solving the equation for the number of diagonals

\frac{n(n-3)}{2} = 54

yields

n = 12

vertices. The number of triangles that can be formed by selecting any 3 of these 12 vertices is given by

\binom{12}{3} = \frac{12 \times 11 \times 10}{6} = 220

Determine the number of vertices

n

of the polygon using the diagonals formula.

n = 12

The number of diagonals

D

in an

n

-sided convex polygon is given by

D = \binom{n}{2} - n = \frac{n(n-3)}{2}

. Setting

\frac{n(n-3)}{2} = 54

gives

n^2 - 3n - 108 = 0

. Factoring

(n - 12)(n + 9) = 0

yields

n = 12

since the number of vertices must be positive.

Calculate the number of distinct triangles formed by choosing 3 vertices from 12.

220

Each set of 3 distinct vertices forms one unique triangle. The order in which the vertices are chosen does not matter, so we use combinations:

\binom{12}{3} = \frac{12 \times 11 \times 10}{3 \times 2 \times 1} = 220

Combinations applied to geometric figures and polygon properties

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