Question

How do you know when a shape is quadrilateral?

Answer 1

Hint: In this question, it is necessary to recall the conditions for a shape to be a quadrilateral. The number of vertices and number of sides should be used as an identifying characteristic for a quadrilateral. These parameters must be used while answering this question.

Complete step-by-step answer:
A quadrilateral is simply a closed polygon with four sides and four vertices. Since there are four vertices, there are four interior angles. The sum of these interior angles is 360 degrees.
There are several types of quadrilaterals, which are classified into broader categories. For e.g Squares, Rectangles and Rhombuses can be considered Parallelograms, since each of these shapes satisfies the conditions required for a shape to be a parallelogram.
Similarly, there is a set of conditions to identify whether a shape is a quadrilateral or not, and to differentiate between a quadrilateral and other shapes. The set of conditions includes two conditions:
A shape must have four line segments as sides.
The shape must also have four vertices, where two of these sides should meet and form an interior and an exterior angle.
If a shape satisfies the conditions mentioned above, then it can be said to be a quadrilateral.

Note: Quadrilaterals are mainly of five types. These are parallelograms, rhombuses, squares, rectangles and trapeziums. In all shapes except the trapezium, both pairs of opposite sides are parallel to each other. Squares and Rectangles have the corner angles as 90 degrees. Rhombuses and Squares have all sides equal, while parallelograms and rectangles have equal sides in pairs.