TI-83 Plus Activities 588
Computing Areas of Regular N-SidedPolygons
Problem
Use the equation solver to store a formula for the area of a regular
N-sided polygon, and then solve for each variable, given the other
variables. Explore the fact that the limiting case is the area of a circle,
pr2.
Consider the formula A = NB2 sin(pàN) cos(pàN) for the area of a
regular polygon with N sides of equal length and B distance from the
center to a vertex.
N = 4 sides N = 8 sides N = 12 sides
Procedure
1. Press 0 to select 0:Solver from the MATH menu. Either the
equation editor or the interactive solver editor is displayed. If the