Talk:Hexagon

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Mathematics grading:	Class  unassessed.	Importance unassessed.	Field: Geometry and topology

Contents 1 picture is good now 2 picture of honeycomb ? 3 number of regions 4 "Sexagon" 5 Comparing to a rectangle? 6 Minimal diameter formula 7 Hexagon and square

[edit] picture is good now

...Anthere ...

...sannse 21:26 May 13, 2003 (UTC)

Yeah, that is good. Nope, I didnot need any refresh :-) ant

[edit] picture of honeycomb ?

I think we need a picture of a honeycomb to illustrate "hexagonal cells".

The Main Page currently mentions "the ideal cellular network has evenly distributed hexagonal cells"

-- but clicking on hexagonal just redirects to hexagon, which doesn't say anything about hexagonal cells (hexagonal arrays). It only talks about single hexagons.

-- DavidCary 03:31, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

[edit] number of regions

Do any of you Wikipedians know the number of regions a hexagon with all of its diagonals shown determines?? 66.245.12.170 23:05, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

A regular hexagon has 25. A general hexagon, assumed to have no more than two diagonals intersecting at any point (other than a vertex) has 26. -- Smjg 11:08, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

See Talk:Diagonal for more details.

[edit] "Sexagon"

Is "sexagon" really a good term?? I say no. "Hexagon" is completely Greek. "Sex" is a Latin prefix. If the word were Latin, it would be "sexangle". See Greek numerical prefixes and Latin numerical prefixes. 66.245.11.175 14:05, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC) indeed m.e. 12:03, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I don't think I've ever heard it called a sexagon, though the equally mixed-up nonagon for enneagon is common, and I've also heard of septagon instead of heptagon. So if the term's to be mentioned, I suppose it ought to have some wording discouraging its use.... -- Smjg 16:23, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

While you're at it, why not discourage television too? : ) Doops 05:11, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

"Television" does not have a Greek or Latin numerical prefix, so what's so special about it?? 66.245.103.69 01:08, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Yes, but tele is Greek, and vision is Latin... which gets right to the heart of your litanies on these topics. It doesn't matter whether you think sexagon is a "good term" or not. I have any number of late XIX and early XX century math texts that have it, along with septagon, octagon, nonagon, and also undecagon and duodecagon. Do you propose we go back in time and remove those? You're sticking in a reasonable point, about the foolish inconsistency, but it's well established in literature that the Latinate use of the terms was always mixed with Greek. Your purported linguistic scholarship of insisting "sexangle" would be a Latin word is extremely incorrect. "Angle" is an English word derived from Latin "angulus" via Norman French thru Middle English. Latin didn't use "sexangulus" in any event. Furthermore, the Greek gon component is related to Latin genu and Modern English knee. Latin's use of the e-grade form beside Greek's o-grade form, didn't preclude Latin speakers from having too much trouble taking gon's meaning correctly. --Sturmde 18:04, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't much care for the Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes. I speak English, and the accepted English words are Hexagon, Nonagon and Television. Not enough people care enough about the history of words to change that. 128.240.229.66 20:02, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Comparing to a rectangle?

Current version: “The Area of a rectangle. You can compare the area of a hexagon to a rectangles.If you make triangles from the hexagon.You can make it into a triangle by switching the triangles around.”

Editing errors not withstanding, I don’t know if he/she meant rectangle or triangle.

If you partition the hexagon into equilateral triangles you can rearrange the 6 of them to make a parallelogram but never a rectangle because all the angles are 60 degrees and could never be combined to be 90. Or assuming he/she meant triangle, it takes 9 equilateral triangles to make a triangle. Unless he/she means something else by that like making right angle cuts in the hexagon and fashioning right triangles and perhaps a rectangle in the middle. But you would have to butcher it and it would no longer yield an intuitive lesson. Perhaps he or she is referring to an inscribed or circumscribed rectangle? Is the originator of this section a native English speaker?

[edit] Minimal diameter formula

Can I change the formula for the minimal diameter? I read it as 'root (3a)' instead of '(root 3)a' and it confused me for a few minutes. Would 'a root 3' be better? Tomid 20:11, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hexagon and square

Is it true that a square whose sides each measure ten centimeters can completely fit inside of a regular hexagon whose sides each measure ten centimeters ?

I don't think so. I'm no expert but I know that the area of such a square is 100 cm², and I think the area of the hexagon is , which clearly isn't possible. However, I think there is some true theory involving a cube of 10 cm sides and a hexagonal hole with 10cm sides, but I don't know much about it. Maybe you could try the reference desk? Hyenaste ^(tell) 04:45, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

By my calculation, it's perfectly possible for the area of a regular hexagon of side 10 cm to be cm². What do you mean exactly? -- Smjg 23:26, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I mean it is not possible for shape with an area of cm² to fit inside an area of 100cm². Hyenaste ^(tell) 01:53, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

You've got it the wrong way round. The rest of us are talking about a square of side 10cm, area 100cm², fitting inside a hexagon of side 10cm, area cm². Not of the hexagon fitting inside the square. -- Smjg 14:47, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I realise that now. I read his question, thought about the "hole-through-the-cube" I mentioned, and assumed he was asking a different question. Oh well. Hyenaste ^(tell) 23:03, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Easily so, I would say. Imagine a hexagon with side length 10cm. Take one of those sides and draw a 10cm x 10cm square from it, inside the hexagon. The hexagon is much bigger. Tomid 15:05, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Cleaned up some vandalism.

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Confused...

A Circle has a total of 360 degrees. According to the Article, each interior angle has 120 degrees. The sum of the interior angles would be 720 degrees. If the interior angle was reduced to 60 degrees, then a sum of 360 degrees would be achieved.

paul d.

I'm no geometrician, but I think you're confused about interior angles. The interior angles of a polygon do not have to equal 360°. If, like you suggested, each angle was compressed to 60°, the shape would become two equilateral triangles, the second a trace of the first. Hyenaste ^(tell) 23:03, 16 September 2006 (UTC)