This was a comment I received from a fourth grade teacher, "Would you believe on the state 4th grade math test this year, they would not accept "diamond" as an acceptable answer for a rhombus, but they did accept "kite"!!!!! Can you believe this? Since when is kite a shape name? Crazy."
First of all, there are NO diamonds in mathematics, but believe it or not, a kite is a geometric shape! The figure on the right is a kite. In fact, since it has four sides, it is classified as a quadrilateral. It has two pairs of adjacent sides that are congruent (the same length). The dashes on the sides of the diagram show which side is equal to which side. The sides with one dash are equal to each other, and the sides with two dashes are equal to each other.
A kite has just one pair of equal angles. These congruent angles are a light orange on the illustration on the left. A kite also has one line of symmetry which is represented by the dotted line. (A line of symmetry is an imaginary line that divides a shape in half so that both sides are exactly the same. In other words, when you fold it in half, the sides match.) It is like a reflection in a mirror.
The diagonals of the kite are perpendicular because they meet and form four right angles. In other words, one of the diagonals bisects or cuts the other diagonal exactly in half. This is shown on the diagram on the right. The diagonals are green, and one of the right angles is represented by the small square where the diagonals intersect. |
| Clip Art by My Cute Graphics |
There you have it! Don't you think a geometric kite is very similar to the kites we use to fly as children? Well, maybe you didn't fly kites as a kid, but I do remember reading about Ben Franklin flying one! Anyway, as usual, the wind is blowing strong here in Kansas, so I think I will go fly that kite!
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