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How to Identify Shapes Like Rhombuses

A rhombus resembles a slanted square creating the appearance of a diamond. A rhombus is a polygon, meaning it is a closed plane figure with straight sides and the same amount of angles as sides. A rhombus also is a quadrilateral because it is comprised of four sides and angles, and is 360 degrees. Identifying shapes that fall within the same category as a polygon requires finding other 2-dimensional polygons with similar shape properties, such as four sides, parallel lines, congruent sets of sides and angles, and lines of symmetry.

Things You'll Need

  • Shape math manipulatives
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Paper
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Instructions

    • 1

      Place shape manipulatives in front of you. Separate them so you have a pile of four-sided figures. All these shapes are like a rhombus in one way because they are polygons and quadrilaterals.

    • 2

      Compare the square, rectangle and parallelogram with the rhombus. Point out similar shape properties to that of a rhombus, such as congruent opposite sides and angles, and two sets of parallel lines in each shape.

    • 3

      Trace a rhombus, rectangle, square and parallelogram onto paper. Place a ruler diagonally on each shape. Draw two diagonal lines of symmetry from opposite angles on each shape. Note that this creates four triangles within each quadrilateral.

    • 4

      Draw a vertical line of symmetry and a horizontal line of symmetry through the square and rectangle to differentiate them from the rhombus parallelogram by showing that both have four lines of symmetry

    • 5

      Look at the parallelogram. Compare the parallelogram and rhombus further by defining both as having two lines of symmetry, two congruent acute angles and two congruent obtuse angles. This makes the parallelogram and rhombus most alike, as squares and rectangles have four 90-degree angles.

    • 6

      Place the trapezoid and rhombus next to each other to compare shape properties. Trapezoids have one set of parallel sides. Isosceles trapezoids also consist of one set of congruent sides and one line of symmetry. Trapezoids are least like rhombuses within the quadrilateral category.

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