A kite is a quadrilateral with two pairs of adjacent sides equal in length. Here AB equals AD, and CB equals CD. The term adjacent stresses that the equal sides meet at a vertex, unlike rectangles or rhombuses.
A kite has one axis of symmetry passing through opposite vertices, here A and C. This axis folds the kite into two congruent triangles and serves as the perpendicular bisector of the other diagonal.
In a kite, the diagonals intersect at right angles. The main diagonal along the symmetry axis bisects the other diagonal into two equal halves, but the shorter diagonal does not bisect the main one.
Kites feature two pairs of equal angles. The angles between the unequal sides, here at vertices A and C, are equal. Angles at B and D may differ unless the kite is a rhombus. The total of all angles is always 360 degrees.
The area formula for a kite is half the product of the lengths of its diagonals. With diagonals eight and six units, the area equals twenty four square units, found by dividing into right triangles.
When all sides of a kite are equal, it becomes a rhombus, and if all angles are also equal, it becomes a square. Kite shapes are used in architecture, design patterns, and traditional flying kites. Problems can involve computing angles, diagonals, and area from side lengths.