16Hit1600
Advanced MathHardNumber of sides from a count of diagonals

Advanced Math practice question

A polygon with n sides has n(n − 3)/2 diagonals. How many sides does a polygon with 20 diagonals have?

Answer: 8

n(n − 3)/2 = 20 → n² − 3n − 40 = 0 → (n − 8)(n + 5) = 0 → n = 8.

Common wrong answers

If you answered 5
5 gives 5(2)/2 = 5 diagonals.
If you answered 10
10 gives 10(7)/2 = 35 diagonals.
If you answered -5
−5 is the rejected negative root.

More Advanced Math questions

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