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In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equal measure.
Any of the sides of a parallelogram, or either (but typically the longer) of the parallel sides of a trapezoid can be considered its base. Sometimes the parallel opposite side is also called a base, or sometimes it is called a top, apex, or summit. The other two edges can be called the sides.
By analogy, it relates to a parallelogram just as a cube relates to a square. [a] Three equivalent definitions of parallelepiped are a hexahedron with three pairs of parallel faces, a polyhedron with six faces , each of which is a parallelogram, and; a prism of which the base is a parallelogram.
Euclid proved that the area of a triangle is half that of a parallelogram with the same base and height in his book Elements in 300 BCE. [1] In 499 CE Aryabhata, used this illustrated method in the Aryabhatiya (section 2.6). [2] Although simple, this formula is only useful if the height can be readily found, which is not always the case.
Parallelogons have an even number of sides and opposite sides that are equal in length. A less obvious corollary is that parallelogons can only have either four or six sides; [1] Parallelogons have 180-degree rotational symmetry around the center. A four-sided parallelogon is called a parallelogram.
In mathematics, the simplest form of the parallelogram law (also called the parallelogram identity) belongs to elementary geometry. It states that the sum of the squares of the lengths of the four sides of a parallelogram equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the two diagonals. We use these notations for the sides: AB, BC, CD, DA.
The midpoints of the sides of any quadrilateral (convex, concave or crossed) are the vertices of a parallelogram called the Varignon parallelogram. It has the following properties: Each pair of opposite sides of the Varignon parallelogram are parallel to a diagonal in the original quadrilateral.
For a polygon with 2n sides, the parallelogram will have a base of length ns, and a height h. As the number of sides increases, the length of the parallelogram base approaches half the circle circumference, and its height approaches the circle radius. In the limit, the parallelogram becomes a rectangle with width π r and height r.