Rectangle

In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be
defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal Rectangle
(360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containing a right angle. A rectangle with four sides of equal
length is a square. The term oblong is occasionally used to refer to a non-square
rectangle.[1][2][3] A rectangle with vertices ABCD would be denoted as ABCD.

The word rectangle comes from the Latin rectangulus, which is a combination of rectus (as an
adjective, right, proper) and angulus (angle).

A crossed rectangle is a crossed (self-intersecting) quadrilateral which consists of two opposite

sides of a rectangle along with the two diagonals[4] (therefore only two sides are parallel). It is a
Rectangle
special case of an antiparallelogram, and its angles are not right angles and not all equal, though
opposite angles are equal. Other geometries, such as spherical, elliptic, and hyperbolic, have so- Type quadrilateral,
called rectangles with opposite sides equal in length and equal angles that are not right angles. trapezium,
parallelogram,
Rectangles are involved in many tiling problems, such as tiling the plane by rectangles or tiling orthotope
a rectangle by polygons.
Edges 4
and
vertices
Contents
Schläfli {}×{}
Characterizations symbol
Classification Coxeter
Traditional hierarchy diagram
Alternative hierarchy Symmetry Dihedral (D2), [2],
Properties group (*22), order 4
Symmetry Dual rhombus
Rectangle-rhombus duality polygon
Miscellaneous
Properties convex, isogonal, cyclic
Formulae Opposite angles and
Theorems sides are congruent

Crossed rectangles
Other rectangles
Tessellations
Squared, perfect, and other tiled rectangles
See also
References
External links

Characterizations
A convex quadrilateral is a rectangle if and only if it is any one of the following:[5][6]

a parallelogram with at least one right angle

a parallelogram with diagonals of equal length
a parallelogram ABCD where triangles ABD and DCA are congruent
an equiangular quadrilateral
a quadrilateral with four right angles
a quadrilateral where the two diagonals are equal in length and bisect each other[7]
a convex quadrilateral with successive sides a, b, c, d whose area is .[8]:fn.1

a convex quadrilateral with successive sides a, b, c, d whose area is [8]

Classification

Traditional hierarchy

A rectangle is a special case of a parallelogram in which each pair of adjacent sides is

perpendicular.

A parallelogram is a special case of a trapezium (known as a trapezoid in North

America) in which both pairs of opposite sides are parallel and equal in length.

A trapezium is a convex quadrilateral which has at least one pair of parallel opposite
sides.

A convex quadrilateral is

Simple: The boundary does not cross itself.

Star-shaped: The whole interior is visible from a single point, without
crossing any edge.
A rectangle is a special case of both
parallelogram and trapezoid. A square is a
Alternative hierarchy special case of a rectangle.

De Villiers defines a rectangle more generally as any quadrilateral with axes of

symmetry through each pair of opposite sides.[9] This definition includes both right-
angled rectangles and crossed rectangles. Each has an axis of symmetry parallel to and equidistant from a pair of opposite sides, and
another which is the perpendicular bisector of those sides, but, in the case of the crossed rectangle, the first axis is not an axis of
symmetry for either side that it bisects.

Quadrilaterals with two axes of symmetry, each through a pair of opposite sides, belong to the larger class of quadrilaterals with at least
one axis of symmetry through a pair of opposite sides. These quadrilaterals comprise isosceles trapezia and crossed isosceles trapezia
(crossed quadrilaterals with the same vertex arrangement as isosceles trapezia).

Properties

Symmetry

A rectangle is cyclic: all corners lie on a single circle.

It is equiangular: all its corner angles are equal (each of 90 degrees).

It is isogonal or vertex-transitive: all corners lie within the same symmetry orbit.

It has two lines of reflectional symmetry and rotational symmetry of order 2 (through 180°).

Rectangle-rhombus duality

The dual polygon of a rectangle is a rhombus, as shown in the table below.[10]

Rectangle Rhombus
All angles are equal. All sides are equal.
Alternate sides are equal. Alternate angles are equal.
Its centre is equidistant from its vertices, hence it has a circumcircle. Its centre is equidistant from its sides, hence it has an incircle.
Two axes of symmetry bisect opposite sides. Two axes of symmetry bisect opposite angles.
Diagonals are equal in length. Diagonals intersect at equal angles.

The figure formed by joining, in order, the midpoints of the sides of a rectangle is a rhombus and vice versa.

Miscellaneous

A rectangle is rectilinear: its sides meet at right angles.

A rectangle in the plane can be defined by five independent degrees of freedom consisting, for example, of three for position
(comprising two of translation and one of rotation), one for shape (aspect ratio), and one for overall size (area).

Two rectangles, neither of which will fit inside the other, are said to be incomparable.

Formulae
If a rectangle has length and width

it has area ,
it has perimeter ,
each diagonal has length , The formula for the
and when , the rectangle is a square. perimeter of a rectangle

Theorems
The isoperimetric theorem for rectangles states that among all rectangles of a given perimeter, the square
has the largest area.
The area of a rectangle
The midpoints of the sides of any quadrilateral with perpendicular diagonals form a rectangle. is the product of the
length and width.
A parallelogram with equal diagonals is a rectangle.

The Japanese theorem for cyclic quadrilaterals[11] states that the incentres of the four triangles determined
by the vertices of a cyclic quadrilateral taken three at a time form a rectangle.

The British flag theorem states that with vertices denoted A, B, C, and D, for any point P on the same plane of a rectangle:[12]

For every convex body C in the plane, we can inscribe a rectangle r in C such that a homothetic copy R of r is circumscribed about C
and the positive homothety ratio is at most 2 and .[13]

Crossed rectangles
A crossed quadrilateral (self-intersecting) consists of two opposite sides of a non-self-intersecting quadrilateral along with the two
diagonals. Similarly, a crossed rectangle is a crossed quadrilateral which consists of two opposite sides of a rectangle along with the two
diagonals. It has the same vertex arrangement as the rectangle. It appears as two identical triangles with a common vertex, but the
geometric intersection is not considered a vertex.

A crossed quadrilateral is sometimes likened to a bow tie or butterfly, sometimes called an "angular eight". A three-dimensional
rectangular wire frame that is twisted can take the shape of a bow tie.

The interior of a crossed rectangle can have a polygon density of ±1 in each triangle, dependent upon the winding orientation as
clockwise or counterclockwise.

A crossed rectangle may be considered equiangular if right and left turns are allowed. As with any crossed quadrilateral, the sum of its
interior angles is 720°, allowing for internal angles to appear on the outside and exceed 180°.[14]

A rectangle and a crossed rectangle are quadrilaterals with the following properties in common:

Opposite sides are equal in length.

The two diagonals are equal in length.
It has two lines of reflectional symmetry and rotational symmetry of order 2 (through 180°).
Other rectangles
In spherical geometry, a spherical rectangle is a figure whose four edges are great circle arcs
which meet at equal angles greater than 90°. Opposite arcs are equal in length. The surface of a
sphere in Euclidean solid geometry is a non-Euclidean surface in the sense of elliptic geometry.
Spherical geometry is the simplest form of elliptic geometry.

In elliptic geometry, an elliptic rectangle is a figure in the elliptic plane whose four edges are
elliptic arcs which meet at equal angles greater than 90°. Opposite arcs are equal in length.

In hyperbolic geometry, a hyperbolic rectangle is a figure in the hyperbolic plane whose four A saddle rectangle has 4 nonplanar
edges are hyperbolic arcs which meet at equal angles less than 90°. Opposite arcs are equal in vertices, alternated from vertices of
length. a cuboid, with a unique minimal
surface interior defined as a linear
combination of the four vertices,
Tessellations creating a saddle surface. This
example shows 4 blue edges of the
The rectangle is used in many periodic tessellation patterns, in brickwork, for example, these rectangle, and two green diagonals,
tilings: all being diagonal of the cuboid
rectangular faces.

Stacked bond Running bond Basket weave Basket weave Herringbone pattern

Squared, perfect, and other tiled rectangles

A rectangle tiled by squares, rectangles, or triangles is said to be a "squared", "rectangled", or "triangulated" (or "triangled") rectangle
respectively. The tiled rectangle is perfect[15][16] if the tiles are similar and finite in number and no two tiles are the same size. If two
such tiles are the same size, the tiling is imperfect. In a perfect (or imperfect) triangled rectangle the triangles must be right triangles.

A rectangle has commensurable sides if and only if it is tileable by a finite number of unequal squares.[15][17] The same is true if the tiles
are unequal isosceles right triangles.

The tilings of rectangles by other tiles which have attracted the most attention are those by congruent non-rectangular polyominoes,
allowing all rotations and reflections. There are also tilings by congruent polyaboloes.

See also
Cuboid
Golden rectangle
Hyperrectangle
Superellipse (includes a rectangle with rounded corners)
References
1. "Archived copy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140514200449/http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/resources/topics/art00
2.pdf) (PDF). Archived from the original (http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/resources/topics/art002.pdf) (PDF) on 2014-
05-14. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
2. Definition of Oblong (http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/oblong.html). Mathsisfun.com. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
3. Oblong – Geometry – Math Dictionary (http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/Oblong.html). Icoachmath.com. Retrieved
2011-11-13.
4. Coxeter, Harold Scott MacDonald; Longuet-Higgins, M.S.; Miller, J.C.P. (1954). "Uniform polyhedra". Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The Royal Society. 246
(916): 401–450. doi:10.1098/rsta.1954.0003 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsta.1954.0003). ISSN 0080-4614 (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/issn/0080-4614). JSTOR 91532 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/91532). MR 0062446 (https://www.ams.or
g/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0062446).
5. Zalman Usiskin and Jennifer Griffin, "The Classification of Quadrilaterals. A Study of Definition", Information Age
Publishing, 2008, pp. 34–36 ISBN 1-59311-695-0.
6. Owen Byer; Felix Lazebnik; Deirdre L. Smeltzer (19 August 2010). Methods for Euclidean Geometry (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=W4acIu4qZvoC&pg=PA53). MAA. pp. 53–. ISBN 978-0-88385-763-2. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
7. Gerard Venema, "Exploring Advanced Euclidean Geometry with GeoGebra", MAA, 2013, p. 56.
8. Josefsson Martin (2013). "Five Proofs of an Area Characterization of Rectangles" (http://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2013v
olume13/FG201304.pdf) (PDF). Forum Geometricorum. 13: 17–21.
9. An Extended Classification of Quadrilaterals (http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/profmd/quadclassify.pdf) (An excerpt
from De Villiers, M. 1996. Some Adventures in Euclidean Geometry. University of Durban-Westville.)
10. de Villiers, Michael, "Generalizing Van Aubel Using Duality", Mathematics Magazine 73 (4), Oct. 2000, pp. 303-307.
11. Cyclic Quadrilateral Incentre-Rectangle (http://math.kennesaw.edu/~mdevilli/cyclic-incentre-rectangle.html) with
interactive animation illustrating a rectangle that becomes a 'crossed rectangle', making a good case for regarding a
'crossed rectangle' as a type of rectangle.
12. Hall, Leon M. & Robert P. Roe (1998). "An Unexpected Maximum in a Family of Rectangles" (http://web.mst.edu/~lmh
all/Personal/HallRoe/Hall_Roe.pdf) (PDF). Mathematics Magazine. 71 (4): 285–291. JSTOR 2690700 (https://www.jst
or.org/stable/2690700).
13. Lassak, M. (1993). "Approximation of convex bodies by rectangles". Geometriae Dedicata. 47: 111.
doi:10.1007/BF01263495 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01263495).
14. Stars: A Second Look (https://web.archive.org/web/20150723004135/http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/profmd/stars.
pdf). (PDF). Retrieved 2011-11-13.
15. R.L. Brooks; C.A.B. Smith; A.H. Stone & W.T. Tutte (1940). "The dissection of rectangles into squares" (http://projecteu
clid.org/euclid.dmj/1077492259). Duke Math. J. 7 (1): 312–340. doi:10.1215/S0012-7094-40-00718-9 (https://doi.org/1
0.1215%2FS0012-7094-40-00718-9).
16. J.D. Skinner II; C.A.B. Smith & W.T. Tutte (November 2000). "On the Dissection of Rectangles into Right-Angled
Isosceles Triangles" (https://doi.org/10.1006%2Fjctb.2000.1987). Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B. 80 (2):
277–319. doi:10.1006/jctb.2000.1987 (https://doi.org/10.1006%2Fjctb.2000.1987).
17. R. Sprague (1940). "Ũber die Zerlegung von Rechtecken in lauter verschiedene Quadrate". Journal für die reine und
angewandte Mathematik. 182: 60–64.

External links
Weisstein, Eric W. "Rectangle" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Rectangle.html). MathWorld.
Definition and properties of a rectangle (http://www.mathopenref.com/rectangle.html) with interactive animation.
Area of a rectangle (http://www.mathopenref.com/rectanglearea.html) with interactive animation.

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