Six identical regular hexagons are arranged inside a larger regular hexagon as shown in the Figure. The outer hexagon has area $$900$$ square units. The area of the shaded region (the total area contained in the smaller
hexagons) is _____ square units.

If a smaller hexagon has side length $$s$$, the side length of the outer regular hexagon is $$3s$$. Areas of similar figures are proportional to the squares of their side lengths, so one small hexagon has $$\frac{1}{9}$$ of the outer area. Therefore, the six smaller hexagons have area $$6\mathbin{\times}\frac{900}{9}=600$$.