A rhombus has four equal sides — picture a square that's been pushed over. It's still a parallelogram, so opposite angles are equal, but the corners aren't right angles.
Drag the corners
rhombus
area ≈ 76.7 sq units
Area
Half the product of the diagonals — or, like any parallelogram, base × height.
The rhombus's special diagonals
- The diagonals cross at right angles (90°) — true of a rhombus, not of a general parallelogram.
- Each diagonal bisects the other, and each diagonal bisects the corner angles it runs into.
- All four sides are equal (the definition); opposite sides are parallel.
- It has 2 lines of symmetry — along the diagonals — and rotational symmetry of order 2. Add right angles and it becomes a square.
Your turn
A rhombus has diagonals of 6 cm and 8 cm. Find its area and its side length.