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Find the number of diagonals that can be drawn in an n-side polygon

  1. Sep 25, 2005 #1

    fork

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    Find the number of diagonals that can be drawn in an n-side polygon.

    The answer is n(n-3)/2.

    I don't know how to do that.
     
    fork, Sep 25, 2005
  2. jcsd
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  3. Sep 25, 2005 #2

    Tide

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    Set up a recursion for the number of diagonals in an n-gon: [itex]D_{n+1} = D_n + n - 2[/itex].
     
    Tide, Sep 25, 2005
  4. Sep 25, 2005 #3

    fork

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    I don't understand how can I set up
    [itex]D_{n+1} = D_n + n - 2[/itex].
     
    fork, Sep 25, 2005
  5. Sep 25, 2005 #4

    HallsofIvy

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    How many diagonals can be drawn from 1 vertex? If you multiply that by the number of vertices you will get the wrong answer! Do you see why? How can you fix it?
     
    HallsofIvy, Sep 25, 2005
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