Trig....a regular hexagon inscribed in a cirle

D

dear_miss_katie

New member
Joined
Aug 30, 2007
Messages
14
Hello! I find this word problem particularly tricky and was wondering if anyone could give me a hint on where to go next. I would greatly appreciate the assistance!

A regular hexagon is inscribed ina circle of radius 25 inches. Find the length of the sides of the hexagon.

So far I have drawn the hexagon inscribe in the circle, and have labeled the radius 25 inches. I have also noticed that when drawing from the center of the circle to the points of the hexagon, triangles are created. Here, however, I am stumped and have no idea what to do next. Can anyone give me a hint? Thank you so much! :)
 
connect all the opposite vertices of the hexagon with line segments ... what kind of triangles are formed?
 
isosceles triangles are formed...the only thing i can think of to do now is to draw an apothem down the center of one of the triangles to create right triangle...Does that create anything I can work with?
 
oh ...what if i say, since one complete rotation is 360 degrees and since there are 6 triangles...that each top angle of the isoceles triangles is 60 degrees. would that be a correct assumption?
 
what special triangle is isosceles and has a vertex angle of 60 degrees?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top