The Honeycomb Conjecture

apriorion · Post by **apriorion** » Tue May 14, 2013 11:40 pm

Given our mutual interest in BOC, their love of hexagons, and our shared interest in math, knowledge, and science, I thought this article might be of some interest to my fellow BOC fans.

Did you know that there was a 2,000 year-old mathematical conjecture about the explanation of why bees use hexagons for their honeycombs? And did you also know that it was mathematically proven to be correct as recently as 1999? I just read about it on NPR (http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/ ... d-hexagons), and I just looked over the original article (URL below). I wish I could understand and follow the proof, but I admire it nonetheless. Hope you enjoy it, too.

http://www.math.pitt.edu/~thales/kepler ... /honey.pdf

rainier · Post by **rainier** » Wed May 15, 2013 12:09 am

I did know this, because I happen to be(bee?) a nerd about honeybees. Most of my drawings these days include honeycomb patterns and I really want to build a top bar hive to keep bees in my back yard. Bees are awesome.

PlacentaSand · Post by **PlacentaSand** » Thu May 16, 2013 9:01 pm

rainier wrote:Bees are awesome.

Word.

rainier · Post by **rainier** » Sat May 18, 2013 8:36 pm

more fun with hexagons and math(s)

Behold the hexaflexagon.

tubolcane · Post by **tubolcane** » Sat May 18, 2013 9:37 pm

These are really cool! I love this one too http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WkmPDOq2WfA

rainier · Post by **rainier** » Sat May 18, 2013 9:46 pm

Yeah I love her videos. Math is amazing. I always did really poorly in it until I went to art school and had professors who helped me understand it in a more practical and fun way, then my mind was blown.

Geometry is everywhere!

fujee · Post by **fujee** » Sat May 18, 2013 11:17 pm

rainier wrote:Yeah I love her videos. Math is amazing. I always did really poorly in it until I went to art school and had professors who helped me understand it in a more practical and fun way, then my mind was blown.

Geometry is everywhere!

Where did you go to art school?

rainier · Post by **rainier** » Sun May 19, 2013 12:01 am

I went to a small art school in connecticut called paier. Not a great school, but I wasn't really ready for college at that point. I almost went to parsons and I think it woulda killed me at that age.

var (x) · Post by **var (x)** » Fri May 24, 2013 12:41 pm

http://bees.tennessee.edu/publications/HandyBeeManual.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/user/swdroege?feature=watch
http://www.discoverlife.org

rainier · Post by **rainier** » Fri May 24, 2013 7:58 pm

var (x) wrote:http://bees.tennessee.edu/publications/HandyBeeManual.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/user/swdroege?feature=watch
http://www.discoverlife.org

you post the best stuff

apriorion · Post by **apriorion** » Sun Jun 02, 2013 5:49 pm

rainier wrote:Yeah I love her videos. Math is amazing. I always did really poorly in it until I went to art school and had professors who helped me understand it in a more practical and fun way, then my mind was blown.

Geometry is everywhere!

I had a similar experience except through a different subject and grad school. It's amazing how a different perspective can give you that gestalt exerperience. And it's also criminal how math is frequently put down as a merely practical discipline in the U.S. public education system, rather than the beautiful science of discovery and process that it really is. I've actually become inspired to pursue a degree in math, once my financial/career situation has settled down a bit.