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Hexagons: Nature's Efficient Shape

Hexagons are one of the most common geometric shapes found in nature. Honeybees construct honeycombs in a perfectly hexagonal pattern because it is the most efficient shape, leaving no wasted space. The honeycomb demonstrates how hexagons can pack together tightly without gaps. Hexagonal structures are also found in other natural phenomena like snail shells and starfish bodies. Hexagons allow for dense, close packing both in nature and in engineering applications like aerospace due to their minimal wasted space.

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Gio Cañeda
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616 views9 pages

Hexagons: Nature's Efficient Shape

Hexagons are one of the most common geometric shapes found in nature. Honeybees construct honeycombs in a perfectly hexagonal pattern because it is the most efficient shape, leaving no wasted space. The honeycomb demonstrates how hexagons can pack together tightly without gaps. Hexagonal structures are also found in other natural phenomena like snail shells and starfish bodies. Hexagons allow for dense, close packing both in nature and in engineering applications like aerospace due to their minimal wasted space.

Uploaded by

Gio Cañeda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

HEXAGONS IN

NATURE
BY: GROUP 1
If you have ever wandered around in nature, you may have notice many
geometric shapes. For examples, take some of the unconventional snail shell spirals,
or the body of starfish. These are all designs that we rarely see in the human world.
We haven’t even mentioned the symmetry of a flower’s petals.
Hexagons are some of the most common shapes in nature. Honeybees
are infact excellent mathematician, thanks to them we can come to the conclusion
that hexagon is the most efficient shape in nature, and in the world.
Hexagon is the best and the most efficient shape in the world because,
Hexagonal shape leaves no wasted space, and best fills any space you put it.
The perfect example is the honeycomb, and we start off from
there……….
THE HONEYCOMB:
 Honeycomb are structures made from the wax secreted by bees. Their purpose is
to store honey, pollen, and larvae. For thousand of years, we have admired the
hexagonal structures of the honeycomb.
 But this structure has been used hundred of years ago. For example, there are
many hexagonal hidden chambers in the dome of the Pantheon in Rome
 Today, the Honeycomb and hexagon structure finds usage in engineering and
scientific applications. Most notably, in the aerospace industry.
Why do honeycombs come in a hexagonal shape?

Some experts believe that bees possess a divine sense of symmetry.


Charles Darwin, for example, described the honeycomb as a masterpiece
of engineering. He said, “It is absolutely perfect in economizing labor and
wax”

We would like to show a vid on why do honeycombs come in a hexagonal shape


THE MATH OF IT ALL:

 Hales used mathematical tools to prove the


Honeycomb Conjecture. An then came the
Kepler’s Conjecture. This Conjecture, known
also as the cannonball problem, asks whether
the traditional pattern used to stack oranges
(cannonballs) is optimal.
 Specifically, it asks if the arrangement of equal-sized
spheres to fill a space with the minimum amount of
wasted volume is the so-called close packing.
It consists of spheres whose centers form a hexagonal lattice.
Mathematical Equation:
 Hexagon is the closest regular polygon to a circle that can tessellate a plane. What
does that mean? it means there is no empty space between the cells. And this statement
is fairly easy to prove.
 We start with the angle at each corner for a regular n-sided polygon at a=180-360/n.
When you tessellate a plane with these object, you put the polygons around one corner
so that they evenly divide the full circle or 360 degrees. As a result, around one corner,
you have m=360/a polygons meeting

THE FULL EQUATION IS THE FOLLOWING:


 Formula: (N-2) x 180
 In a hexagon, there are six angles. So, the sum of all the angles of
the hexagon is: (n-2) x 180 = (6-2) x 180
=4 x 180
=720
 Thus, the properties of a regular hexagon can be summarized as:
o Each interior angle = 120
o Each exterior angle = 60
o Number of diagonals = 9
o Number of vertices = 6
THANK YOU
FOR
LISTENING!!

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