The interior angles of a polygon with sides, are in an A.P. with common difference . If the largest interior angle of the polygon is , then is equal to:
- A
- B
- C
- D
The interior angles of a polygon with sides, are in an A.P. with common difference . If the largest interior angle of the polygon is , then is equal to:
Correct answer:A
Standard Method
Given: The interior angles of an -sided polygon are in A.P. with common difference , and the largest interior angle is .
Find: The value of .
Let the first angle be . Then the largest angle is
So,
The sum of the interior angles of an -sided polygon is also
Since the angles are in A.P., their sum is
Substitute :
Multiply both sides by :
Divide by :
Factorizing,
So,
Since the number of sides must be positive,
Therefore, the correct option is A.
Expanded Algebra
Given: The interior angles form an A.P. with common difference and largest angle .
Find: The number of sides of the polygon.
Let the angles be
Because the largest angle is ,
Now use the sum of terms of an A.P.:
This must equal the sum of interior angles of the polygon:
Hence,
Substituting ,
Using the quadratic formula,
So,
Reject the negative value.
Therefore, the number of sides is .
Taking as the first term of the A.P. This is wrong because the question states that is the largest interior angle. Use , not .
Using the exterior-angle sum formula instead of the interior-angle sum formula. For an -sided polygon, the interior-angle sum is , whereas exterior angles sum to .
Making an algebraic error while substituting into the A.P. sum formula. Expand carefully before simplifying.
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