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9th March 2025 - Link Blog

wolf-h3-viewer.glitch.me (via) Neat interactive visualization of Uber's H3 hexagonal geographical indexing mechanism.

Map showing H3 geospatial index hexagons overlaid on the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. Various H3 cell IDs are displayed including "852621b3fffffff", "852621a7fffffff", "8527526fffffff", "85262cd3fffffff", and "85262c83fffffff". A sidebar shows input fields for "lat,lon" with a "Go" button and "valid H3 id" with a "Find" button. Text indicates "Current H3 resolution: 5" and "Tip: Clicking an H3 cell will copy its id to the clipboard." Map attribution shows "Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors".

Here's the source code.

Why does H3 use hexagons? Because Hexagons are the Bestagons:

When hexagons come together, they form three-sided joints 120 degrees apart. This, for the least material, is the most mechanically stable arrangement.

Only triangles, squares, and hexagons can tile a plane without gaps, and of those three shapes hexagons offer the best ratio of perimeter to area.

Posted 9th March 2025 at 2:51 pm

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This is a link post by Simon Willison, posted on 9th March 2025.

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