Edges and vertices 4 Dual polygon rectangle | Schläfli symbol { } + { } | |
 | ||
Type quadrilateral, parallelogram, kite Symmetry group Dihedral (D2), [2], (*22), order 4 Area K
=
p
⋅
q
2
{displaystyle K={ rac {pcdot q}{2}}}
(half the product of the diagonals) | ||
In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus(◊) (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a simple (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards which resembles the projection of an octahedral diamond, or a lozenge, though the former sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 60° angle (see Polyiamond), and the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.
Contents
- Etymology
- Characterizations
- Equation
- Basic properties
- Area
- Inradius
- Dual properties
- Other properties
- As a Varignon parallelogram
- As the faces of a polyhedron
- References
Every rhombus is a parallelogram and a kite. A rhombus with right angles is a square.
Etymology
The word "rhombus" comes from Greek ῥόμβος (rhombos), meaning something that spins, which derives from the verb ρέμβω (rhembō), meaning "to turn round and round". The word was used both by Euclid and Archimedes, who used the term "solid rhombus" for two right circular cones sharing a common base.
The surface we refer to as rhombus today is a cross section of this solid rhombus through the apex of each of the two cones.
Characterizations
A simple (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral is a rhombus if and only if it is any one of the following:
Equation
The sides of a rhombus centered at the origin, with diagonals each falling on an axis, consist of all points (x, y) satisfying
The vertices are at
Basic properties
Every rhombus has two diagonals connecting pairs of opposite vertices, and two pairs of parallel sides. Using congruent triangles, one can prove that the rhombus is symmetric across each of these diagonals. It follows that any rhombus has the following properties:
The first property implies that every rhombus is a parallelogram. A rhombus therefore has all of the properties of a parallelogram: for example, opposite sides are parallel; adjacent angles are supplementary; the two diagonals bisect one another; any line through the midpoint bisects the area; and the sum of the squares of the sides equals the sum of the squares of the diagonals (the parallelogram law). Thus denoting the common side as a and the diagonals as p and q, in every rhombus
Not every parallelogram is a rhombus, though any parallelogram with perpendicular diagonals (the second property) is a rhombus. In general, any quadrilateral with perpendicular diagonals, one of which is a line of symmetry, is a kite. Every rhombus is a kite, and any quadrilateral that is both a kite and parallelogram is a rhombus.
A rhombus is a tangential quadrilateral. That is, it has an inscribed circle that is tangent to all four sides.
Area
As for all parallelograms, the area K of a rhombus is the product of its base and its height (h). The base is simply any side length a:
The area can also be expressed as the base squared times the sine of any angle:
or in terms of the height and a vertex angle:
or as half the product of the diagonals p, q:
or as the semiperimeter times the radius of the circle inscribed in the rhombus (inradius):
Another way, in common with parallelograms, is to consider two adjacent sides as vectors, forming a bivector, so the area is the magnitude of the bivector (the magnitude of the vector product of the two vectors), which is the determinant of the two vectors' Cartesian coordinates: K = x1y2 – x2y1.
Inradius
The inradius (the radius of a circle inscribed in the rhombus), denoted by r, can be expressed in terms of the diagonals p and q as:
Dual properties
The dual polygon of a rhombus is a rectangle:
Other properties
As a Varignon parallelogram
The Varignon parallelogram of an equidiagonal quadrilateral is a rhombus.
As the faces of a polyhedron
A rhombohedron is a three-dimensional figure like a cube, except that its six faces are rhombi instead of squares.
The rhombic dodecahedron is a convex polyhedron with 12 congruent rhombi as its faces.
The rhombic triacontahedron is a convex polyhedron with 30 golden rhombi (rhombi whose diagonals are in the golden ratio) as its faces.
The great rhombic triacontahedron is a nonconvex isohedral, isotoxal polyhedron with 30 intersecting rhombic faces.
The rhombic hexecontahedron is a stellation of the rhombic triacontahedron. It is nonconvex with 60 golden rhombic faces with icosahedral symmetry.
The rhombic enneacontahedron is a polyhedron composed of 90 rhombic faces, with three, five, or six rhombi meeting at each vertex. It has 60 broad rhombi and 30 slim ones.
The trapezo-rhombic dodecahedron is a convex polyhedron with 6 rhombic and 6 trapezoidal faces.
The rhombic icosahedron is a polyhedron composed of 20 rhombic faces, of which three, four, or five meet at each vertex. It has 10 faces on the polar axis with 10 faces following the equator.