Why are bee hives hexagonal?

Because the hexagonal structure is cylindrical, the practicality is also very good, and the hexagonal shape is also more suitable for the body structure of the bee, which is very economical, so the bee hives are hexagonal.

This can be more economical, in line with the geometric law, and can make the whole nest safer.

This saves material and is more convenient to use, as each edge is shared.

Because the bee's nest is a regular hexagon, scientists have proven that the regular hexagonal cherry blossom gap arrangement is the most stable and can maximize the use of space, so it is ingenious.

The honeycomb is strictly hexagonal cylindrical. It has a hexagonal opening at one end and the base of a closed hexagonal pyramid at the other, consisting of three identical diamonds. At the beginning of the 18th century, the French scholar Malaarche had specifically measured the size of a large number of beehives, and he was very surprised that all the obtuse angles of the diamond shape of these honeycombs forming the chassis were 109°28, and all the acute angles were 70°32.

The famous biologist Charles Darwin once exclaimed: "The bee hive is the most amazing and magical structure in nature." ”

So, what are the ingenious features of the honeycomb's structure? A bee hive consists of a number of regular hexagonal hives of almost the same size, which are closely arranged with "walls" made of beeswax in between. In addition to the hexagonal entrance, each hive has a pointed bottom.

In terms of appearance, each hive is a hexagonal prism of almost equal size, with an inverted cone on the base, enclosed by three congruent diamond-shaped faces, and the acute angles of these three rhomboids are all 70°. The area of each hive is almost a cubic centimeter. These hives are closely connected, arranged parallel to each other and embedded with each other.

This hexagonal tightly knit building structure has a high degree of tightness, requires less materials, and has a large space. At the same time, due to its compact structure, it can withstand more impact than other structures, so it is also very strong.

The structure of the hive is of great interest to scientists. After in-depth research on the beehive, the scientists were surprised to find that the adjacent holes share a wall and a hole bottom, which is very economical in building materials; The aperture is hexagonal, and the body of the bee is basically cylindrical, so the bee will not have extra space in the aperture and will not feel the crowd of the crowd. The structure of the honeycomb gave great inspiration to the spacecraft designers, and they used the honeycomb structure when they developed it:

Zhaoxiao first made a honeycomb out of metal, and then clamped it with two metal plates to form a honeycomb structure.

This honeycomb structure is strong, lightweight, and good for sound and heat insulation.

1. Hexagons are stronger than rounds.

2, Hexagon and hexagon, there is no gap in the middle, if it is circular, there is a gap.

Because of the spatial shape constructed in hexagons, the least amount of material is used, the highest degree of tightness, and the maximum space.

Suppose there is a fixed space and you want to build a hive with limited resources, then the best choice is the circle, because the circle is the shape with the largest area with a certain circumference, but the space composed of many circles, the space between the circles is a waste of material. Using the method of solving pi and "cutting the pie", the circle is cut into polygons, and the more sides there are, the closer it is to the circle, and the larger the hive that can be built. Only hexagons can be tightly connected without gaps.

Octagons and octagons will have gaps, and quadrilaterals and triangles are more consumable than hexagons.

Coincidentally, the hexagonal structure is also very stable. Many shapes in nature are hexagonal, such as graphite molecules and benzene. But the hive is not a neat hexagon, each hexagon has errors, and the hive is a spherical space, and the hexagon is a space curved hexagon.

In short, the most material-efficient structure is the planar hexagon.

Circles and hexagons each have their own characteristics. For individuals, the spatial efficiency of the circle is the highest. For example, on a flat surface, the area of a circle is the largest for the same side length.

In space, the volume of the ball is the largest under the same surface area. However, if multiple individuals need to be combined, hexagons are more space-efficient than circles: circles and circles do not flow seamlessly.

But hexagons can do it: any number of hexagons of the same size can be completely seamlessly connected without wasting any space. A nest happens to be a combination of multiple individuals.

In order to build the most units in a given space, hexagons (volumes) are more efficient than circles.

Least material, most space.

The inner angle of the hexagon is 120 degrees, and the 3 hexagons can be just 360 degrees without wasting a little space. If the number of sides exceeds the hexagon, space is wasted; The number of sides is less than that of hexagons, such as quadrilaterals, and trilaterals, although they do not waste space, but they waste materials.

If the hive is round or octagonal, voids will appear, and if it is triangular or quadrangular, the area will be reduced, so among these shapes the hexagon is the most efficient.

From a mechanical point of view, hexagons are the most stable, and multiple regular hexagons are closely arranged together, leaving no gaps in between. The bottom of the honeycomb is a diamond-shaped culet, each with an obtuse angle of 109 degrees 28 minutes and an acute angle of 70 degrees 32 minutes, which is a specific diamond-shaped structure that makes the most efficient use of materials and space.

I don't know if you've observed, but the internal structure of the bee's hive is hexagonal and looks exactly the same, why is this happening?

If you look closely at a hive, you will find that it is made up of many nests of the same size. From the front, they are neatly arranged hexagons; Viewed from the side, they are regular hexagonal prisms closely arranged together, while the base of each regular hexagonal prism is a culet made up of three identical diamonds.

For a cylindrical object, when the front, back, left, and right sides of its cross-section are compressed, the cross-section becomes hexagonal. Therefore, from a mechanical point of view, the Penghui hexagon is the most stable, and multiple regular hexagons are closely arranged together, leaving no gaps in the middle.

Originally, the purpose of the honeycomb hexagonal shape was to make a state-of-the-art house in a limited space using the least amount of raw materials. Later, it turned out that in other places, such as in house construction, the honeycomb mezzanine structure also showed great superiority.

The honeycomb structure is the basic structure of the honeycomb, which is a structure composed of a bridge fiber hexagonal single room, the mouth of the house is facing down or facing to the side, and the structure is symmetrically arranged and combined from back to back, which has excellent geometric and mechanical properties, so it is widely used in materials science.

Scientists have found that the hexagonal building structure has the highest degree of tightness, the simplest materials required, and the largest usable space. As a result, it can accommodate up to 10,000 bees.

If the entire base of the hive is divided into three diamond-shaped sections, the angles of each acute angle and each obtuse angle are equal (about 72° of acuteness and 109° of obtuse). What's even more amazing is that in order to prevent the outflow of honey, the building of each hive is from the middle to the sides horizontally; Each hive exhibits an elevation angle of 13° from the bottom of the inner chamber to the opening.

There are two main reasons why a bee's nest is hexagonal. First of all, a hexagon is a shape that makes the most of space. Bees need to store enough honey and beeswax in the nest, as well as the space needed to hatch eggs and feed their young.

Hexagons are shaped tighter than other polygons, which minimizes unused space and thus improves space efficiency. Secondly, the hexagonal structure is able to provide maximum structural stability. The honey bee's nest needs to be able to withstand the weight of the nest as well as the pressure of the external environment, and each side of the hexagon can evenly share the pressure, so that the whole nest has maximum shelter stability.

In addition, the angles and sides in the hexagonal structure are equal, which evenly distributes the forces, allowing the nest to better resist external compression and deformation. Therefore, bees choose hexagonal nests as their habitat to maximize the benefits of rolling and lack of space, while also providing the best structural stability.