Finding ears of a polygon

Question

Hello all,

Currently working through some problems regarding diagonals and ears for n-sided polygons. I am having trouble finding information of substance through the web, but I know that any polygon with more than 3 vertices has at least two non-overlapping ears. I'd like a bit more clarity on how to correctly find the number of ears for a quadrilateral, for example.

Answer 1

The "two ears theorem" is widely known, but I don't know of a general theorem for determining the number of ears of an n-sided polygon. Sounds like a Ph.D. research project to me.

I'd be glad to continue discussions on it, and I'm sure there are a number of others on Wyzant who would be interested in this problem as well.

Answer 2

Perhaps this site:

https://www.cgeo.uliege.be/CG/polygons_have_ears.pdf