Talk:irregular polygon

RFD discussion: February–April 2014

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irregular polygon

Sum of parts. SemperBlotto (talk) 13:37, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Delete DCDuring TALK 13:42, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Keep: irregular has many meanings, not SOP. --kc_kennylau (talk) 14:11, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

By that reasoning we would need [[big head]] a fortiori because both big and head have many meanings. What's the full argument? DCDuring TALK 14:46, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Non-natives may think that it is a polygon which is uneven (e.g. a gear), according to the second sense of irregular. --kc_kennylau (talk) 14:52, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

But it could mean that. --WikiTiki89 20:29, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Most SOP phrases are made up of words that have multiple meanings. The question is whether the meaning of the phrase is easily derived from at least one of the meanings for each of the components. In this case, we don't have a geometry-based definition for irregular, but that can be added. There are literally an infinite number of polygon names that can be substituted for "polygon" in this phrase. Chuck Entz (talk) 14:58, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Geometry sense of irregular added (after consulting MathWorld). SemperBlotto (talk) 15:18, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Delete per Chuck. - -sche (discuss) 19:59, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

A non-convex regular polygon

A star that is not a "regular polygon"

• Keep, since the sense of "irregular" used in "irregular polygon" is specific to polygons. Thus, this seems to be the Talk:free variable case. I suspect that the current definition is wrong ("A shape with sides that are not the same size"); I expect irregular polygon to be one that is not equiangular and/or not equilateral as per W:Regular polygon. To support the claim that "irregular" is specific to polygons: a star shape is a polygon and it is a regular shape, but it is not a "regular polygon". --Dan Polansky (talk) 17:44, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

  A bit of clarification: a star shape seen as a non-convex polygon does meet the definition of a regular polygon. But a star shape whose edges do not cross does not meet the definition and is thus an "irregular polygon", regardless of being a regular shape. --Dan Polansky (talk) 17:53, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

  I'm not sure that the star shape whose edges do cross meets the definition of polygon at all. And the star whose lines do not cross cannot be called a "regular shape" in the mathematical sense of "regular". And with the non-mathematical sense of "regular", you could also call it a "regular polygon". --WikiTiki89 18:03, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

• Delete. I think an etymological note is necessary here. "(ir)regular" in the mathematical sense was first used with words like "triangle", "pentagon", "hexagon", etc. Only later was it abstracted to "polygon". Therefore if we consider "(ir)regular polygon" to be idiomatic, we would also have to consider "(ir)regular triangle", "(ir)regular pentagon", "(ir)regular hexagon", etc. to be idiomatic. --WikiTiki89 18:03, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Delete. Clear SOP, by reading irregular and polygon the user will get 100% of the information necessary to know what an irregular polygon is. Also citable: google books:"irregular triangle", google books:"irregular quadrangle", google books:"irregular pentagon", google books:"irregular hexagon", google books:"irregular heptagon", google books:"irregular octagon", google books:"irregular nonagon", google books:"irregular decagon". — Ungoliant ^(falai) 22:01, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

• Delete now that (deprecated template usage) irregular has geometry-related senses. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 14:11, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Deleted.​—msh210℠ (talk) 03:07, 1 April 2014 (UTC)