### question_id's blog

By question_id, history, 5 years ago,

I can figure out the short formula many contestant used and in TT(tutorial). Can anyone give me some explanation on this.. sketch etc. Thanks in Advance.

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 » 5 years ago, # |   0 I have tried it. But not finding clue and I am trying more on it.
 » 5 years ago, # |   +3 Extend the sides of the hexagon to form an equilateral triangle (try to see why it is an equilateral triangle). Then the area of this triangle is sqrt(3)/4 * a^2 where a = a1 + a2 + a3 is the length of the side of the big triangle. Notice that the area of the original hexagon equals to the Area of big triangle - Area of 3 triangles ==> the area = sqrt(3)/4 * a^2 - sqrt(3)/4 * a1^2 - sqrt(3)/4 * a3^2 - sqrt(3)/4 * a5^2. where a1, a3, and a5 are the sides of the 3 triangles we added to the hexagon to form the big triangle. Now to see how many triangles of side = 1 exists we divide the area of the hexagon by the area of an equilateral triangle of side length = 1 (which equals sqrt(3)/4) ==> the answer = a^2 - a1^2 - a3^2 - a5^2.