Hexagonal Honeycomb Pattern
Posted: Monday, March 14, 2011
by Ruth Tan
Benefits of Honey
Why is the shape of a honeycomb cell hexagonal, and not square, round, triangle, rectangle, rhombus, or even pentagon? Has any kid asked you this question before? If you can't get away by telling them because the bees are insects and insects have six legs, and thus they make six-sided homes, read this as it might help somewhat, or perhaps even leave you and all the adults and kids agog.
The bees already have enough awesome abilities to wow us - their pollination of over 90 fruit and vegetable crops worldwide, their phenomenal sense of smell, their incredibly speedy wings that make their famous, distinctive buzz, their highly organized society and intricate cooperation, and their communication with one another by "dancing". Turning to the structural design of their homes, it also suggests that they excel in economics and mathematics! Studies on the geometry of honeycomb pattern explain that no other shape can create more space with the given material. Circles for instance leave space, and square makes smaller area. In addition, your engineer friends can confirm with you that the hexagon structure provides the maximum strength and that it is used in designing airplane wings and satellites walls. Though the wax cell walls may be only about 0.05mm thick, each cell can support 25 times its own weight. The bees have chosen the hexagon as a building cell for their combs to achieve the maximum strength to store their food - honey in it: a comb of 100 g weight can hold in it up to 4 kg of honey! Producing wax is a laborious process. For each gram of wax produced, the bee needs to consume 6 to 7 grams of honey. The bees are genetically able to calculate, design, and construct a structure that provides the most living and storage space for their larvae, honey and pollen utilising the least resources and energy! Wow, these insects are born engineers and economists! And modern design today has borrowed the bee's building principle for achieving spaciousness, strength, and sturdiness in creation of countless indoor structures, furniture, and household and office products.
Yet another spectacular work of the honeybees and the creator of this universe!
It takes a bee to get the honey out.
~ Arthur Guiterman
Article: http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honeycomb-pattern.html
This Article has been viewed 362 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.