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Pentagons Are Terrible at One Thing

50 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2020–2022 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended in hexagon-grid threads as a fun but informative overview, and sometimes dropped as a light joke.

A CGP Grey video about why pentagons are bad at tiling and why hexagons are so special, in his usual playful style. It touches on honeycombs and tiling in nature.

“he manages to cover a lot of ground” (HN, 2020)

2 recommendations · 1 citations · 2 jokes · Explainers

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@elihu Dec 2020 Recommends
on HN thread Hexagonal Grids (2013)
CGP Grey did a video about hexagons recently. I mean, there's only so much you can say about hexagons really, but he manages to cover a lot of ground. [this video]
CGP Grey covers a lot of ground about hexagons
@TameAntelope Jan 2021 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: What are you working on?
Hexagons are, after all, the bestagons. On the very very low chance you haven't seen this: [this video] And if you don't know who CGP Grey is and are wondering how this comment fits into HN, I can only offer that he's cashing in on his reputation a bit with the fun tone, but IMO the video is also interesting informationally.
Fun-toned but informative video on why hexagons are special

Citations, criticism and jokes

@peterburkimsher Oct 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Something special is happening in Barcelona
Good idea! Honeycombs are hexagons, and they tile the plane. And they're made of triangles. [this video] We need parks, not car parks! Rather getting zapped on power lines or pooping on cars, the birds can have branches to sit in and flower beds to fertilise.
Cited alongside honeycomb and tiling remark
@peterburkimsher Apr 2022 Makes a joke
on HN thread Show HN: Visualize your day as 144 rectangles
"Hexagons are the bestagons" according to CGP Grey. [this video] Personally I prefer fractals. A 6-sided hexagon is just 2* 3-sided triangles. Or 6 of them, depending how you prefer to tile the plane. [link] So how about a day schedule organised by Sierpinski triangles? Lots of space in the middle for resting.
@DonHopkins Dec 2022 Makes a joke
on HN thread Geodesic Domes Made Simple
But I thought Hexagons were the Bestagons! ;) [this video] Hexagons, Pentagons, and Geodesic Domes [link] Introduction to Hexagonal Geodesic Domes [link]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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