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I never understood that expression. When I look at a the outline of France, I see a pentagon, with the Pyrenees and the Côte d’Azur forming a single side. Yes,
by Someone 4y ago
I never understood that expression. When I look at a the outline of France, I see a pentagon, with the Pyrenees and the Côte d’Azur forming a single side.
Yes, that’s a side made up of a mountain range and a coast, but to my eye, it fits way better than the hexagon of https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagone_(France) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagone_(France). You can fix that around about any somewhat country whose outline isn’t very elongated such as Germany, Iceland or Poland.
And I’m not the only one. https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pourlascience.fr%2Fsd%2Fmathematiques%2Fpeut-on-vraiment-appeler-la-france-l-hexagone-16640.php#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=https%3A%2F... argues a square or a pentagon are better fits for regular polygons. I would mare the pentagon slightly irregular to get an even better fit.
- blahedo 4y agoIf you directly connect Biarritz to Monaco you do get a pentagon and a reasonably good fit to the actual border; but the angle between the border and the coast at Perpignan is so tight (well under 90° at higher zoom levels but close to a right angle even at a glance) that it feels like it ought to be a point of the surrounding polygon. (Treating the Pyrenees as a separate "side" from the Med coast also means that each side is either land or sea, not both.)