Hands On Activity
Pick’s Theorem:
- To find the area of an irregular polygon, anything other than a square or rectangle, we can use Pick’s Theorem.
- Take any polygon and lay it on a lattice. A lattice is a grid of points where every point has whole number coordinates.
- According to Pick’s Theorem all you need to do to find the area of a polygon is to count the points on the interior and on the boundary of the shape.
I stands for the number of points in the interior of the shape.
B stands for the number of points on the boundary of the shape.
B stands for the number of points on the boundary of the shape.
Pick's Theorem can be used in a hands on activity by having students cut out irregular shapes, tracing them onto graph paper, counting up the interior and boundary points, and calculating the area using the formula.