The Hexagon
Hexagons have to be one of my favorite shapes, it’s hard to say why but I just think they’re neat. They have internal angles that add up to 720 or 4 lots of pi for those who prefer radians (everyone). The other neat thing is that the length between a vertex and the one opposite is twice the length of one of the sides in a regular hexagon. This in turn means that hexagons can be constructed from equilateral triangles. The area for a hexagon is given by the formula A=((3√3)/2)t^2 where t is the length of one of the sides, or alternatively simply A=1.5dt where d is the length between parallel sides. The elegant construction discovered by Euclid is also pictured.
Hexagons also pop up a lot in nature, being the shape of honey combs (for it’s space optimizing ability), igneous basalt columns, crystal structures, benzene rings, snow flakes and the clouds on Saturn’s north pole.
