What is the difference between quadrilaterals and polygons

Polygons can have any number of sides greater than or equal to 3. Polygon is the general term for a geometrical figure consisting of a closed finite sequence of line segments, joined at the ends. The simplest polygon apart from the degenerate digon which has 2 sides is the triangle. Polygons include regular and irregular triangles, quadrilaterals , pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, etc. Quadrilateral is the name we give to any polygon with exactly 4 sides.

Quadrilaterals include squares, rectangles, rhombuses, parallelograms, kites, and several more. The digon which has two sides is not very meaningful in ordinary Euclidean plane geometry.

It is more meaningful in the context of non-Euclidean geometries, such as elliptical or spherical geometry. What is the difference between a quadrilateral and a polygon? What is the What is a trapezoid? Which is always a rhombus? Parallelogram, Trapezoid, Rectangle, or Square? Why is a trapezoid a quadrilateral, but a quadrilateral is not always a trapezoid?

What is the difference between a trapezoid and a rhombus? How do you prove this theorem on trapezoids and its median? So, a quadrilateral is always a polygon, but a polygon is not always a quadrilateral. Are you lost yet?! Students learn to classify shapes as early as 2 nd grade.

They often get confused because shapes end up having a lot of different names. I tell them that the word Polygon is at the top of the list, and then we can classify even more specifically under that. So, a square is first a polygon, it is more specifically a quadrilateral, more specifically it is a parallelogram, and even more specifically, it is a square. I compare this to saying that I am a human being, but more specifically, I am a female. All human beings are not female, but all females are human beings.

Some quadrilaterals have special characteristics, therefore we can classify them more specifically and we give them special names. Tagged as: parallel sides , parallelogram , polygon , quadrilateral , rectangle , rhombus , square , trapezoid , triangle. Previous post: Joke: Where do baby ghosts go during the day? Do you ever have difficulty keeping up with the math concepts and math strategies that your kids are learning these days?