diagonal

thumb|right|The diagonals of a cube with side length 1. AC' (shown in blue) is a [[space diagonal with length \sqrt 3, while AC (shown in red) is a face diagonal and has length \sqrt 2.]] thumb|Horizontal (left), vertical (center) and diagonal (right) double arrows.

AI overview

A diagonal is a line segment connecting two non-adjacent corners of a shape or object, running at an angle rather than along its sides or edges. Diagonals matter because they help us measure distances across shapes, understand their geometric properties, and appear frequently in mathematics, engineering, and design.

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Wikidata facts

Image: Cube-Diagonals.svg

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Commons gallery: Diagonal
Commons category: Diagonal

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Article

10 sections

Contents

Polygons
Regions formed by diagonals
Intersections of diagonals
Regular polygons
Polyhedra
Higher dimensions
N-Cube
Geometry
Notes
External links

In geometry, a diagonal is a line segment joining two vertices of a polygon or polyhedron, when those vertices are not on the same edge. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word diagonal derives from the ancient Greek διαγώνιος diagonios, "from corner to corner" (from διά- dia-, "through", "across" and γωνία gonia, "corner", related to gony "knee"); it was used by both Strabo and Euclid to refer to a line connecting two vertices of a rhombus or cuboid, and later adopted into Latin as diagonus ("slanting line").