median
don steward
mathematics teaching 10 ~ 16

Friday 1 January 2016

counting hexagons

this task was suggested by David Wells in his problem solving books

it may be helpful to look at the centred hexagonal numbers first

how were these patterns formed?
what would/could the next one look like?
how many of the unit hexagons (i.e. the grid hexagons) are there inside each shape?
how does the pattern continue?









for the first pattern, it might help to appreciate a general rule by counting the number of unit hexagons in:




















and, for the second pattern,  maybe consider several of these together:



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