SpaceBanter.com - View Single Post - Six-sided feature encircling the north pole of Saturn

**Ed Murphy**

wrote:

Max area of 4x overlap-g circles within a reg hexagon?: Six-sided
feature encircling the north pole of Saturn

Must there be an area overlapped by all four circles, or is it
sufficient that any two of the four circles overlap?

Looks like one circle should have the same center as the hexagon,
and touch all six sides, while the other three fill parts of
three different corners. The tricky part is the size and placement
of those last three.

Does the size of the hexagon relative to the sphere make a
difference? Does the plane solution equal the limit of the
sphere solution as the ratio of sizes approaches zero?