What is the equation for finding the number of degrees inside a pentagon?

Answer 1

Let n = number of sides = 5

Sum of the interior angles = (n - 2) * 180° = 540°

This comes from the fact that a triangle has angles adding to 180°, a square has angles adding to 360°, a pentagon has angles adding to 540°, etc. Each time you add a side, you add another 180 degrees.

However there are no 1 sides or 2 sided figures, so you have to subtract 2 from the sides, before multiplying.

The general formula for an n-sided polygon is:
(n - 2) * 180°

Answer 2

Let n be the number of sides of the polygon.
The sum of the angles inside a polygon is (2n-4) right angles
(A right angle is 90 degrees,)
Example
A pentagon can be divided up into five triangles. The sum of the angles in each triangle adds up to 180 deg or 2 right angles total .So you have 5 x 2 right angles which is the sum of all of the angles of all of the triangles.
At the center where all of the triangles meet; all of the angles add up to 360 deg or 4 right angles. ( Now you subtract these from the total since you aren't counting them) so now tou have:
(2 x 5) - 4 = 6 right angles or 540 deg

Answer 3

It is (number of sides - 2) times 180, so 3 X 180 = 540