find the distance between the sides of an octagon

Question

find the distance between the sides of an octagon with side length s.

Answer 1

In addition to Kenneth S's note above, you might note that each side has 2 adjacent, 2 next-adjacent, 2 further-adjacent, and 1 opposite side. And distances could be specified as from the nearest points of each side (i.e. vertex to vertex), or averages of all the points of each side -- since you're averaging distances over a distribution involving square roots, a little calculus would be handy for this last category!

You might think that the more involved category seems like a useless thing to calculate -- but when (or if) you take physics, you might have to figure such things for statics and mechanics -- moments of inertia and so on. Not to worry, by the time you get there, you'll have the math skills needed.

Answer 2

you can work this based on a realistic drawing, and general knowledge such as Pythagorean Theorem.