# Is there a name for this polygon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604 "2025-08-30T16:34:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2025, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/21 "2025-08-30T22:23:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Wouldn’t “wedge” work wonderfully? Seems like I remember always calling it that when playing Trivial Pursuit. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/22 "2025-08-30T22:52:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > Okay, what’s the name for a region of a plane that’s bound by enclosed curves? > > If there are no straight edges, then it’s a “curvilinear shape”. I think it ought to be _French disk_. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/23 "2025-08-30T23:15:54Z")
If they can name it a Pie Chart, they can name the sectors a Pizzagon. I approve. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/24 "2025-08-30T23:47:04Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Okay, what’s the name for a region of a plane that’s bound by enclosed curves? Interior of a Jordan curve: > **[Jordan curve theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_curve_theorem)** > > In topology, the Jordan curve theorem (JCT), formulated by Camille Jordan in 1887, asserts that every Jordan curve (a plane simple closed curve) divides the plane into an "interior" region bounded by the curve (not to be confused with the interior of a set) and an "exterior" region containing all of the nearby and far away exterior points. Every continuous path connecting a point of one region to a point of the other intersects with the curve somewhere. > While the theorem seems intuitively obvio... > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Calling it a shape seems so imprecise. The terminology is totally precise. You have Jordan curves, piecewise smooth simple closed curves, etc. Just specify what it is you are talking about. Many certain shapes have special names, of course: sector of a circle, segment of a circle, pentagon, lune, Mandelbrot set, etc. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2025, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/25 "2025-08-30T23:53:50Z")
I don’t care if there is a correct answer. From now on I will be calling it a pizzagon. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/26 "2025-08-31T00:07:34Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Pi slice? I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2025, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/27 "2025-08-31T00:24:10Z")
Sufficient usage will make it correct, eventually. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/28 "2025-09-01T15:57:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You would think we would have made advances in the field in the 2300 years since Euclid. Who’d have guessed? A few thousand years after the classic Greek geometers, there are still Platonic solids to be discovered! Here we have a fine example of a blakatahedron: > **[Daddy-O as 'blakatahedron'.jpg](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l-0x1xKoavqVKoaG0_S81LrFlhkskSMK/view?usp=share_link)** > > Google Drive file. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/29 "2025-09-01T16:24:29Z")
Combining sector and triangle we get a sectangle. Or sextangle. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/30 "2025-09-01T16:31:34Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Or sextangle Sounds like nude Twister™ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/31 "2025-09-01T17:51:10Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Combining sector and triangle we get a sectangle. Or sextangle. It’s all about where the figures intersect. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/32 "2025-09-02T02:26:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You would think we would have made advances in the field in the 2300 years since Euclid. We will as soon as I trisect this 60 degree angle with straightedge and compass. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/33 "2025-09-02T02:35:10Z")
Lots of such problems become solvable if you allow a ruled straightedge; what was the reason the ancient Greek geometers thought that was cheating? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/34 "2025-09-02T02:37:51Z")
Because it goes beyond Euclid’s axioms that limit you to drawing a straight line between two points and making a circle with a center and a radius. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/35 "2025-09-02T21:06:15Z")
A ruler doesn’t actually let you solve any more problems than an unmarked straightedge does, given that you can construct a ruler using an unmarked straightedge. Unless you posit that your ruler has infinitely-fine gradations. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/36 "2025-09-04T08:49:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > you can construct a ruler using an unmarked straightedge. But making markings on the ruler is outside the bounds of the classical construction method, where you’re just drawing on the parchment, not the instruments - if you allow marking the ruler, neusis construction makes trisection trivial. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/37 "2025-09-04T10:10:55Z")
I would have called your initial shape a wedge, but maybe I’ll switch to pizzagon. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/38 "2025-09-04T10:52:28Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > if you allow marking the ruler, neusis construction makes trisection trivial. That’s not about allowing a ruler; that’s about allowing that particular construction technique. Which technique a ruler isn’t really suited for. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/39 "2025-09-04T11:06:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s not about allowing a ruler; that’s about allowing that particular construction technique. Which is all about the marked line. In the real world, that’s going to be a ruler. > [@Chronos](#): > > Which technique a ruler isn’t really suited for. What do you mean? A marked ruler (or marked string) is basically _required_ to do it. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604/40 "2025-09-04T12:27:41Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > A marked ruler (or marked string) is basically _required_ to do it. I was taught the technique using a ruler and a compass (the two pointed mathematical instrument, not the magnetic type) My math teachers were really, really big on practical understanding of maths before venturing into the … uh… harder part, where irrational numbers exist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-polygon/1022604.md?page=3)