Five points are located in an equilateral triangle with 10-inch sides (or on its perimeter).
What’s the maximum distance between the two closest points?
With 6 points, one can place 3 on the vertices and three on the side bisectors, and the two closest points are 5 inches apart.
I don't off-hand see a way to improve on this with only 5 points, so I am going to guess that the answer is 5 inches.