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 of the rolling hexagon is equivalent to the combined areas of unit circles and unit hexagons.
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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 3 1 of a circle with a radius of 3 and therefore an area of 3 1 π ( 3 ) 2 = π .
The purple sector is 3 1 of a circle with a radius of 2 and therefore an area of 3 1 π ( 2 ) 2 = 3 4 π .
The red sectors are each 3 1 of a circle with a radius of 1 and therefore an area of 3 1 π ( 1 ) 2 = 3 1 π .
All the sectors combine for an area of π + π + 3 4 π + 3 1 π + 3 1 π = 4 π , which is equivalent to the area of 4 unit circles, so X = 4 .
The 4 dark blue triangles can be rearranged into 1 hexagon with unit sides, as shown below:
This hexagon, along with the light blue hexagon, makes 2 hexagons total, so Y = 2 .
Since X = 4 and Y = 2 , X Y = 8 .