Ken's Puzzle of the Week
Hexagon in a Square
What is the size of the largest regular hexagon that can be constructed inside a
square with side-length 's'?
Source: Email from Maria del Pilar Sanchez (Another reader found this previously
posted at DansMath,
problem 215.)
Solutions were received from Joseph DeVincentis, Mark Rickert, Denis Borris,
Keith Lynch, Earl Gose, and K Sengupta.
The largest hexagon is achieved by aligning a diameter of
the hexagon along the diagonal of the square.
Then the edge of the
hexagon is sqrt(2-sqrt(3)) s or about 0.518 s.
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