How many sides does a hexagon have?
A hexagon has six sides and six angles. In a regular hexagon, all sides are the same length and every interior angle measures 120 degrees.
The name comes from the Greek words hex, meaning six, and gonia, meaning angle. The interior angles of any hexagon add up to 720 degrees. A regular hexagon can be divided into six equal triangles, each with three sides the same length as the hexagon's sides.
Regular hexagons fit together perfectly without gaps, a property called tessellation. Only three regular shapes can do this on their own: triangles, squares and hexagons. Of these, hexagons enclose the most area for a given length of edge, which makes them very efficient.
Hexagons in nature
Bees build honeycomb from hexagonal wax cells, using the least wax to store the most honey. Hexagons also appear in snowflakes, the columns of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and a giant six-sided storm at Saturn's north pole. Many board games use hexagonal tiles.
Did You Know?
Graphene, a material made of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons, is one of the strongest materials ever tested.