Equal Sides of Quadrilaterals Explained | Geometry for Kids

Welcome to Math with Mr. J. In this video, I'm going to cover equal sides of quadrilaterals. Now, equal sides are just sides that are the same length. Equal sides are an important property or characteristic of quadrilaterals. They help us identify and name them. In other words, equal sides help us tell different quadrilaterals apart. Again, equal sides are sides that are the same length. For example, let's look at this triangle right here. I know this is a quadrilateral video, but we're going to use this triangle as an example first. Now, does it look like all of the sides are the same length? Yes, they do look like they are the same. Another way to tell is if we measure or if we are given the measurements. For example, let's say each side is five feet. Now, we can clearly see all of the sides are the same length. They're all five feet. Another way of seeing or marking equal sides is using tick marks. Notice each side has one tick mark. That tells us each side is the same length. Think of it like this. Each side with one tick mark is matching. Those sides are the same length. Let's go through some examples of quadrilaterals here, starting with number one. So from what we can see, any equal sides? Yes, all four are equal. And those arrows point that out. Let's show this using tick marks. We have four equal sides here. All four sides are the same length. Those four equal sides, plus the right angles, give us the information we need to say this is a square. So four equal sides. Moving on to number two. Any equal sides? No, there aren't any equal sides here, which is perfectly fine. We still have a quadrilateral. Just zero equal sides. In other words, all four sides are different lengths. Moving on to number three. Do we see any sides that are the same length? Any equal sides here? Well, we can see that we don't have four equal sides like a square. So all four sides are not the same length. But it does look like the top and bottom sides are the same length. And then the left and right sides are the same length. So let's use orange arrows for the top and bottom. And then blue arrows for the left and right. We're not using the same color all the way around because not all four sides are the same length. The sides with the orange arrows are the same length. And then these sides with the blue arrows are the same length. We have two pairs of equal sides here. Again, not all four sides are the same. But what we have, we have opposite sides that are equal. Sides across from each other. So opposite sides are the same length. This is important when it comes to different types of quadrilaterals. And here we can see this is true for a rectangle. Let's include tick marks now. Since the top and bottom are the same, they need to match. So we will use one tick mark. Now are the left and right sides the same length as the top and bottom? No, so we can't use one tick mark on those sides. We're going to use two tick marks to show that those sides are the same length. So to recap, opposite sides are equal here. Lastly, for number four, any equal sides? Yes, all four sides are equal. So is this a square? Well, this quadrilateral doesn't have right angles like a square needs to. So no, this is not a square. This is called a rhombus. A rhombus has four equal sides, but we don't need those right angles. Let's include tick marks here. So again, four equal sides. So there you have it. There's a little bit about equal sides of quadrilaterals. Now we're ready to take a look at other properties of quadrilaterals as well. Right angles and parallel sides, if you haven't done so already. The links to those videos are in the description. Once we understand equal sides, right angles, and parallel sides, we will be able to put this all together and look at classifying and naming quadrilaterals. That link is in the description as well, if you're ready for that. I hope that helped. Thanks so much for watching. Until next time, peace.