Why Nature Prefers Hexagons

Nautilus ^ | 7 Apr, 2016 | Phillip Ball

[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.

[Fungi]

Creation is the work of an omniscent God. Simple, yet the fools refuse to acknowledge it.

Psalm 14:1: For the choir director. Davidic. The fool says in his heart, "God does not exist." They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good. HSB.

[Catmom]

God wants all his children to have good cellular coverage.

[Larry Lucido]

LOL!

[Carpe Cerevisi]

I have kept bees for most of the last 43 years and I still don’t know much about them because they are marvels.

I'm thinking of getting a couple of hives and getting into the hobby.

[NorthstarMom]

Pretty sure it was Moody. I think our church library still has it. Miracle of the Bee or something like that. Amazing info.

[NorthstarMom]

Pretty sure it was Moody. I think our church library still has it. Miracle of the Bee or something like that. Amazing info.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The Earth is Satan's realm.

Not according to God.

Old Testament,
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
Psalms 24:1

New Testament
"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."
1 Corinthians 10:26

[MHGinTN]

There is a distinct hexagon of clouds in Saturn’s northern hemisphere at the planets North polar region.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The devil’s in a way, temporarily. The Lord’s absolutely. Even the devil is only exercising what authority he has there, by His permission.

[mythenjoseph]

WHA ?

[WorkingClassFilth]

Be sure that you do get at least two. You need comparison for learning and if one queen dies, you can requeen with fresh eggs if you catch it soon enough.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

No. Not even in a way.

Not even hell belongs to the devil.

Satan may be a roaring lion roaming to and fro but every place he goes belongs to God.

[ThunderSleeps]

I believe for the same volume of storage and material in the walls a hexagonal structure is stronger than one based on squares.

[Nifster]

Hexagons pack well

[HiTech RedNeck]

1 John 5:19.

[Nifster]

Because Bucky Fuller never caught on

[HiTech RedNeck]

And what’s more, it shows. Things like life spans are less than they are prophesied to be during the Millennium — way less.

[FreedomPoster]

So I started playing wargames seriously as a middle-schooler when we lived in Northern Virginia, when Dad was stationed at the Pentagon. Imagine my delight when we moved to Fort Knox, and the bathrooms at the very old-school Officer’s Club had smallish hexagon tiles of about 1”! I wanted to go in and draw maps on top of them, but that would have been ill-advised.

[scrabblehack]

less calculation, yes. Less material, no.

With 19 walls, 10 ft. each, you can enclose an area of 1039.23 square feet in 4 hexagonal rooms.

Now, that same 1039.23 square feet in a square pattern is 32.24 feet on a side. To get 4 rooms you need 12 walls of 16.12 feet each. 12 x 16.12 = 193.42 feet of wall.

With hexagons you need only 190 feet of wall.

[BitWielder1]

So why do humans insist on squares? Houses, rooms boxes etc.

If I may speculate, most human artifacts fit better in square boxes, and using wood it's easier and less waste to cut square corners.
When stacking boxes within boxes for transport, rectangular wins. Bees don't have to do that.

I think it's a matter of the materials and methods available and how to use them effectively with minimum waste and work.
For bees it worked out to be hexagonal wax walls, for us it's wooden rectangular boxes.
The rest is habit.
We do make round jars for liquids and food stuff. Round is a strong shape and makes sense when using clay and glass.