Polygonal chain
（重定向自Polygonal path）
![A simple polygonal chain](/Images/godic/202502/03/Chainline.svg3620.png")
![A self-intersecting polygonal chain](/Images/godic/202502/03/Self_crossed_polygonal_chain.svg3620.png")
![A closed polygonal chain](/Images/godic/202502/03/Closed_polygonal_line.svg3620.png")
![A set of n=17 points has a polygonal path with 4 same-sign slopes](/Images/godic/202502/03/Monotone-subseq-17-5.svg3620.png")
In geometry, a polygonal chain is a connected series of line segments. More formally, a polygonal chain P is a curve specified by a sequence of points ![\scriptstyle(A_1, A_2, \dots, A_n)](/Images/godic/202502/03/31610bd4a5b0894ba96f48cc76df0db13620.png")
called its vertices. The curve itself consists of the line segments connecting the consecutive vertices. A polygonal chain may also be called a polygonal curve, polygonal path, polyline, piecewise linear curve, or, in geographic information systems, a linestring or linear ring.