Loading Calculator...
Please wait a moment
Please wait a moment
Calculate volume, surface area, and other properties of a regular hexagonal prism. Enter the side length and height.
A hexagonal prism has two parallel regular hexagon bases connected by six rectangular faces. The regular hexagon has six equal sides and six equal angles of 120° each.
The apothem is the distance from the center of the hexagon to the midpoint of any side. It equals s√3/2, where s is the side length. The apothem is also the radius of the inscribed circle.
Hexagons are efficient for tiling (no gaps), have a high area-to-perimeter ratio, and distribute forces evenly. They appear in honeycomb, nuts and bolts, pencils, and tile patterns.
For a regular hexagon, apothem = s√3/2 ≈ 0.866s. The circumradius (center to vertex) equals the side length s.
Standard wooden pencils are hexagonal prisms. The shape prevents rolling, allows efficient packing, and provides a comfortable grip.
For irregular hexagons, divide into simpler shapes (triangles) to find the base area, then multiply by height for volume.
A cylinder with the same circumradius would have slightly more volume. As the number of polygon sides increases, it approaches a cylinder.
A regular hexagon can be divided into 6 equilateral triangles. Each triangle has area (s²√3)/4, so total area = 6 × (s²√3)/4 = (3√3/2)s².