Quadrilaterals in a Hexagon

Which of these quadrilaterals can you find in the hexagon?
Exploring and noticing Working systematically Conjecturing and generalising Visualising and representing Reasoning, convincing and proving
Being curious Being resourceful Being resilient Being collaborative

 

This regular hexagon has been divided into 36 triangles. Can you convince yourself that all the triangles are congruent?

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Quadrilaterals in a Hexagon

Here is a printable sheet with copies of the hexagon to draw on

By shading in some of the triangles, which of these shapes can you make?

  • Kite
  • Rectangle (that is not also a square)
  • Square
  • Parallelogram (that is not also a rectangle, square or rhombus)
  • Rhombus (that is not also a square)
  • Trapezium (that is not also a parallelogram)
  • Delta/Arrowhead



You should have found that only one of those shapes is not possible.

Can you fit one of each different classification of quadrilateral on the same hexagon with no overlaps?

 

OR

 

By shading in some of the triangles, which of these shapes can you make?

  • Kite
  • Rectangle
  • Square
  • Parallelogram
  • Rhombus
  • Trapezium
  • Delta/Arrowhead



You should have found that only one of those shapes is not possible.

Can you fit one of each different classification of quadrilateral on the same hexagon with no overlaps?

Note for this activity: Some of these shapes are special kinds of other shapes - for example, a square is a specific type of rectangle, and a rectangle is a specific type of parallelogram. For this activity, each quadrilateral you draw can only represent its most specific classification: it it's a square, you can't use it as a rectangle, and if it's a rectangle, you can't use it as a parallelogram.

 

Thank you to Glyn Philip Richards who submitted this problem to NRICH.