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This geometry math tutorial from NutshellMath offers homework help on identification and properties of special quadrilaterals. A quadrilateral is a polygon with four sides, and special quadrilaterals are a unique class of quadrilaterals which have at least one pair of sides parallel (for example a rectangle).


This tutorial introduces the five major special quadrilaterals and their properties. The first is the parallelogram, which has both pairs of opposite sides parallel to each other. The opposite sides and opposite angles of the parallelogram are congruent, and its diagonals bisect each other. A rhombus is a type of parallelogram which has all sides congruent. It has all the properties of a parallelogram, and its diagonals are perpendicular as well. A rectangle is a quadrilateral with whose interior angles are all right angles. It has all the properties of a parallelogram and its diagonals are also congruent. A square is a rectangle whose sides are all congruent. Squares have all the properties of a parallelogram and a rhombus. Trapezoids are unlike the others special quadrilaterals, as a trapezoid has only one set of sides parallel to each other, instead of two.

These properties of special quadrilaterals can allow one to identify the special quadrilaterals and given their features, to also infer properties of a complex geometric figure based upon the presence of special quadrilaterals. Knowing the unique properties of special quadrilaterals is an important problem-solving tool in geometry for discovering unknown features of figures.