Posted on 04/28/2016 6:19:20 PM PDT by MtnClimber
The geometric rules behind fly eyes, honeycombs, and soap bubbles. How do bees do it? The honeycombs in which they store their amber nectar are marvels of precision engineering, an array of prism-shaped cells with a perfectly hexagonal cross-section. The wax walls are made with a very precise thickness, the cells are gently tilted from the horizontal to prevent the viscous honey from running out, and the entire comb is aligned with the Earth’s magnetic field. Yet this structure is made without any blueprint or foresight, by many bees working simultaneously and somehow coordinating their efforts to avoid mismatched cells.
The ancient Greek philosopher Pappus of Alexandria thought that the bees must be endowed with “a certain geometrical forethought.” And who could have given them this wisdom, but God? According to William Kirby in 1852, bees are “Heaven-instructed mathematicians.” Charles Darwin wasn’t so sure, and he conducted experiments to establish whether bees are able to build perfect honeycombs using nothing but evolved and inherited instincts, as his theory of evolution would imply.
Seems like it is the most compact geometry for cells of storage.
So why do humans insist on squares? Houses, rooms boxes etc.
Because nature plays wargames.
With shared walls between cells, why not just use squares? Less material, less calculation.
They do this in zero gravity space as well. Perfect 7 degree inclines.
I have kept bees for most of the last 43 years and I still don’t know much about them because they are marvels.
Hexagons resist crushing much better than squares.
Racking and shear forces are greater in squares. Further, the corners do not facilitate even evaporation of the nectar they way that the more rounded hexagonal cells do. Lastly, the queen gauges fertilzation of eggs by the size of the cell as it fits her distended abdoment. Also, corners are wasted space in the development of essentially cylindrical larvae.
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Answered my own question.
From article: "...hexagonal cells require the least total length of wall, compared with triangles or squares of the same area. So it makes sense that bees would choose hexagons, since making wax costs them energy, and they will want to use up as little as possible—just as builders might want to save on the cost of bricks."
Excellent points, thanks.
The Star of David.
There are six quarks too: up, down, bottom, top, strange, and charm.
It's all about the number six.
Squares use more material per volume stored.
Hexagons use the least material per volume stored in cells that have common walls. Triangles are even less efficient than squares.
Less stress by weight on top. Downward force gets distributed is my guess.
It seems to me that squares (rectangles) would require offset rows for strength (like bricks). Hexes are offset anyway and they're closer to cylinders.
Good one
Nah, real numbers belong to satan. Integers are godly.
Back years ago, I think it was Moody Bible Institute, had a program called “Sermons from Science” and one of the “sermons” was a detailed film of the entire story of honey bees. How God created them with the innate ability to operate their hives like a well-oiled machine, and do everything with the precision of architects.
If I’m wrong about it being Moody, I’d be happy to be corrected.
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