Progress is Not Linear Quiz - How Many Sides? | Math

How Many Sides?

First you learned the circle, then the triangle, and maybe a square came next. Then shapes got crazy! Put these geometric shapes in order by the number of sides. Hint: look at the prefixes when things get very large.

An ordering quiz by GBfan. Estimated time: 3 mins.

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Isosceles right triangle

All triangles add up to 360 degrees. An isosceles triangle has three sides and two of the sides have the same measurement. For an isosceles right triangle, one angle is 90 degrees and the other two are 45 degrees.

2. Kite

A kite is not only a fun toy to play with on a windy day, it's also the same of a four sided geometric shape. A kite, by definition, is a quadrilateral with two distinct pairs of adjacent, equal-length sides.

3. Octagon

Octagons do not occur often in nature but we will see the eight sided shape in stop signs, some open umbrellas, and the symmetry found on a daisy. Octagons have eight sides and the sum of all of the interior angles is 1080 degrees.

4. Concave Dodecagon

If you've got a twelve sided geometry shape, it's called a dodecagon. It also has twelve interior angles that sum up to a nice round sum of 1800 degrees. If one of the angles is more than 180 degrees, it's called a concave dodecagon.

5. Pentadecagon

A pentadecagon is sometimes called a 15-gon, wouldn't that have made this quiz easier! A regular pentadecagon would have 15 equal angles that measure 156 degrees each. As difficult as it sounds, you can create a regular pentadecagon using a simple compass and a straightedge.

6. Icosikaihenagon

This is not a shape that can be drawn simply with a compass and a straightedge. The icosikaihenagon comes from the Greek words "Icosi" (twenty) + "kai" (and) + "hena" (one) + "gon" (sides). If you can imagine 21 nails on a board and wrapping string around each nail to connect, you could create this unusual shape.

7. Tetracontagon

An icosagon is a twenty sided geometric shape. A tetracontagon has double the number of sides reaching forty sides in total. Using the geometric formula (N-1)(180), we'd find a sum of interior angles measuring 6840 degrees.

8. Octacontagon

Hopefully you noticed that tetracontagon and octacontagon were similar. Octo- is a prefix that means eight, so this becomes an eighty sided geometric shape, a theoretical shape in the eyes of the mathematician. When you reach a shape with eighty sides and the shape is regular (all angles are equal), the octacontagon will resemble a circle to the naked eye.

9. Chiliagon

Chiliagon sounds delicious on a cold day but it describes a shape that is essentially impossible to construct and has 1000 sides and 1000 angles. While it is not seen in nature, the term "chiliagon" has been used by philosophers and mathematicians, including Rene Descartes, John Locke, Emmanuel Kant, and Gottfried Leibniz, to describe an unfathomable number.

10. Megagon

Hopefully you put megagon as the biggest geometric sided shape on the list. Mega- is a root word meaning great or abnormally large. A megagon has a million sides and is used in calculus when trying to describe something having a mathematical limit. Each of the angles in this theoretical shape would approach 180 degrees but be just short at 179.99964 degrees.

Source: Author GBfan

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
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What's the Correct Order?	Choices
1.	Kite
2.	Octagon
3.	Pentadecagon
4.	Tetracontagon
5.	Chiliagon
6. (Blackjack?)	Concave Dodecagon
7.	Icosikaihenagon
8.	Megagon
9. (Roman Numberal M)	Isosceles right triangle
10.	Octacontagon

Progress is Not Linear Trivia Quiz

How Many Sides?

First you learned the circle, then the triangle, and maybe a square came next. Then shapes got crazy! Put these geometric shapes in order by the number of sides. Hint: look at the prefixes when things get very large.