Shown to the right is a regular hexagon.
Which region has a greater area?
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👍 Yes. It's great
Draw lines equal in length to the lines creating the red triangle, and observe:
From this we find that the original lines divide the three parallelograms to create the hexagon in half, by bisecting the shapes. Because 1 / 2 + 1 / 2 = 1 , we know that the two colored divisions are equal.
A h e x a g o n = 2 3 3 x 2
Now, length of side of red triangle = s = 3 x (twice the height of one of the six smaller equilateral triangles in diagram above)
Height of red triangle = h:
∴
(
2
3
x
)
2
+
h
2
=
3
x
∴ 4 3 x 2 + h 2 = 3 x 2
∴ h 2 = 3 x 2 − 4 3 x 2 ∴ h 2 = 4 9 x 2 ∴ h = 2 3 x
A r e d = 2 s h = 2 3 x 2 3 x = 4 3 3 x 2 = 2 A h e x a g o n
A b l u e = A h e x a g o n − A r e d = 2 A h e x a g o n ∴ A r e d = A b l u e
Fold the blue triangles into the center. Since the hexagon angles are 120° and the triangle angles are 60°, they'll fit perfectly.
Let s be the side of the hexagon, and d be the chord joining every other vertex, The angle formed by adjacent hexagon sides, t = 4 180/6 = 120. The area of the blue part = 3 (1/2)s^2 sin(120) =[3 sqrt(3)/4] s^2. By the law of cosines, d^2 = s^2 + s^2 -2 s^2 cos(120) = 3s^2 The red area is an equilateral triangle with area = sqrt(3)/4 d^2 =[3 sqrt(3)/4] s^2, so they are equal. Ed Gray
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A n o t h e r s o l u t i o n :
Let x be the side length of the regular hexagon. Then the area of the three blue isosceles triangles is A b l u e = 3 ( 2 1 ) ( x 2 ) ( sin 1 2 0 ) = 2 3 ( x 2 ) ( 2 3 ) = 4 3 x 2 3 .
Now the area of a regular hexagon is given by A h e x a g o n = 2 3 3 x 2 .
So the area of the red region is
A r e d = A h e x a g o n − A b l u e = 2 3 3 x 2 − 4 3 3 x 2 = 4 3 x 2 3
Hence, the areas are equal.