Rolling Hexagon

Geometry Level 3

A regular hexagon with side length 1 (unit hexagon) rolls around another regular unit hexagon, as shown, using the vertices as pivot points.

The area enclosed by the path of the red vertex \color{#D61F06}\text{red vertex} of the rolling hexagon is equivalent to the combined areas of x x unit circles and y y unit hexagons.

Find x y . xy.


The answer is 8.

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1 solution

David Vreken
Apr 18, 2018

The area enclosed by the path of one of the vertices of the rolling hexagon can be partitioned as follows:

The green sectors are each 1 3 \frac{1}{3} of a circle with a radius of 3 \sqrt{3} and therefore an area of 1 3 π ( 3 ) 2 = π \frac{1}{3}\pi(\sqrt{3})^2 = \pi .

The purple sector is 1 3 \frac{1}{3} of a circle with a radius of 2 2 and therefore an area of 1 3 π ( 2 ) 2 = 4 3 π \frac{1}{3}\pi(2)^2 = \frac{4}{3}\pi .

The red sectors are each 1 3 \frac{1}{3} of a circle with a radius of 1 1 and therefore an area of 1 3 π ( 1 ) 2 = 1 3 π \frac{1}{3}\pi(1)^2 = \frac{1}{3}\pi .

All the sectors combine for an area of π + π + 4 3 π + 1 3 π + 1 3 π = 4 π \pi + \pi + \frac{4}{3}\pi + \frac{1}{3}\pi + \frac{1}{3}\pi = 4\pi , which is equivalent to the area of 4 4 unit circles, so X = 4 X = 4 .

The 4 4 dark blue triangles can be rearranged into 1 1 hexagon with unit sides, as shown below:

This hexagon, along with the light blue hexagon, makes 2 2 hexagons total, so Y = 2 Y = 2 .

Since X = 4 X = 4 and Y = 2 Y = 2 , X Y = 8 XY = \boxed{8} .

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