Area of a circle inscribe a hexagon. Cut the hexagon into six triangles by splitting it from the center. Two opposite triangles both touch two common diameters; slide them along one so the radial edges are adjacent. They now form a parallelogram, with the hexagon sides making two opposite edges, one of which is the base, "s". Two radial edges form slanted sides, and the height, "h" is equal to its apothem (as in the Archimedes proof). In fact, we can assemble all the triangles into one big parallelogram by putting successive pairs next to each other. The same is true if we increase
Magic hexagon gave a less intricate constructive proof. The order-3 magic hexagon has been published many times as a 'new' discovery. An early reference, and possibly the first discoverer, is Ernst von Haselberg (1887). The numbers in the hexagon are consecutive, and run from 1 to formula_1. Hence their sum is a triangular number, namely There are "r" = (2"n" − 1) rows running along any given direction (E-W, NE-SW, or NW-SE). Each of these rows sum up to the same number "M". Therefore: This can be rewritten as Multiplying throughout by 32 gives which shows that formula_6 must be an integer,