July 11, 2010

Hexagon Spire

Looking up can present you with remarkable geometric vistas in a variety of settings. One of my most vivid memories is of the interior of a spire that consisted of a sequence of stacked, rotated hexagons of diminishing size, producing a convincing illusion of infinite extent.




The spectacular, soaring spire of the Man in the Community pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal consisted of a sequence of nested hexagons (video tour of pavilion).


The sequence of inscribed hexagons suggests a variety of math problems. What is the ratio of the areas of the circumscribed regular hexagon to the inscribed regular hexagon? Solution.




Photo by I. Peterson
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2 comments:

  1. Adriana7:54 AM

    your posts make my days more beautiful :) thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pacha Nambi3:41 PM

    My friend Jayaraman Narayanan says: "the answer can be given for regular polygon of any number of sides".

    ReplyDelete