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.

[Talisker]

Well done, thanks!

[Buttons12]

Offsetting (which comes “naturally” so to speak, from hexagons, but not from squares) of the cylindrical cells probably helps keep the comb from falling down due to its weight. There’s less material between cells with hexagonal arrangement. All this material is glued to something at the top, from which it hangs.
And the stress is distributed more evenly.
Less excess and wasted material, less weight, less danger of collapse...would be my guess.

[Buttons12]

why not just use squares? Less material

Squares would need more material. The compartment inside is a circle. And with the extra weight in the corners they'd need to reinforce everything a lot more.

[Verginius Rufus]

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

Caused by bees?

[Albion Wilde]

bump

[Vince Ferrer]

So it makes sense that bees would choose hexagons

How does it make sense? How did they arrive at the ability to calculate the amount of material they are using, and how to try different shapes and compare them? Once they arrived at their optimal calculation, how do they transmit this knowledge to the next generation?

[Salamander]

ping

[TexasTransplant]

Carbon?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Sorry, but the world in that case refers to non believers.

The Earth refers to the creation, the World refers to humanity.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Psalm 90:10.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[Talisker]

How does it make sense? How did they arrive at the ability to calculate the amount of material they are using, and how to try different shapes and compare them? Once they arrived at their optimal calculation, how do they transmit this knowledge to the next generation?

Those are separate questions. First, it makes sense from an engineering standpoint - maximum strength and usability from minimal energy expenditure and materials. Second, the article suggests that physics naturally forms hexagons in water bubbles, and so that might somehow be connected to the making of the wax hexagons, by the bees sensing that natural predisposition to that shape, rather than them calculating it somehow.

[caveat emptor]

Here are three projects for anyone who likes fiddling with geometric models:

trihexaflexagon
hexahexaflexagon
truncated icosahedron:
I know of no easy way to make a model like this:


But something similar to the figure below is not very complicated or hard to make, but does take a bit of work. FR-mail me if interested and I will write up some instructions.

[SunTzuWu]

Bookmark.

[HiTech RedNeck]

So do you throw your lot in with the Dominionists?

[ShadowAce]

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."

Yeah--because bees are experts at design. This article was written as if bees know why they use hexagons. Hint: They're insects. They don't have that sort of brain capacity.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And what do you make of Satan’s and Jesus’ actions when, during His trials in the desert, Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world at the price of bowing down to him. Jesus refuses on the basis of a prohibition on idolatry, not on the basis that it’s already His or that it was something that was fundamentally illogical rather than violating rank. “Silly devil, I already own it” would have shut him up just fine.

[dmcnash]

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

So do you enjoy being a Satanist?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I see, so you infer that God is a liar when He states plainly that the Earth is His.

Got it.

Oh and "kingdoms" are made up of people.

Sorry, wrong again.