A hexagon is a flat shape with six straight sides and six corners (called vertices).

You see hexagons everywhere once you start looking. Honeybees build their honeycombs in perfect hexagonal cells because this shape uses the least amount of wax while creating the most storage space. The nuts you tighten with a wrench are usually hexagonal because the six flat sides give you multiple places to grip. Stop signs are octagons (eight sides), but many floor tiles, game boards, and even some pencils are hexagons.

A regular hexagon has all six sides exactly the same length and all six angles equal. This special property lets regular hexagons fit together perfectly without any gaps, like puzzle pieces. That's why bathroom floors sometimes use hexagonal tiles: they tessellate, meaning they cover a surface completely with no spaces between them.

In nature and engineering, hexagons show up because they're remarkably strong and efficient. Soccer balls use hexagons (combined with pentagons) to form a sphere. Snowflakes have hexagonal symmetry. When engineers need to build something light but strong, they often use hexagonal patterns, from airplane wings to cardboard.