Why Do Bees Build Hexagons

Bees know that the hexagon is superior to the square and the triangle because this shape will hold more honey and requires the least amount of energy and material. Bees have not studied tessellation theories, however some of their behavior patterns can be explained mathematically. A commonly asked question is, why do bees build hexagonal honeycombs? Through this unit I have seen the importance tessellations contribute to bees livelihood, as well as their success as insects. Bees not only use their honeycomb for food and shelter, but strive to store their honey in the maximum amount of space they can achieve. As a result of bees needing to maximum storage for their honey, they require a design that would complete this essential necessity. Bees built cells/storage compartments to hold honey and decided to use hexagons to accomplish this. This precise geometric shape makes quite a difference in how their honeycomb turned out. This hexagonal honeycomb was created to have a perfect fit with each hexagon leaving no gaps, unlike a circle, pentagon or octagon. By minimizing gappage there is more space for honey and this allows bees to use less wax, which is harder to produce. This makes hexagons a perfect shape
Tessellations allow observers to examine the importance shapes have and their effect on the volume. In this project I discovered the difference of volume between different shapes and that the smallest subtleties caused a major volume difference. For example, a circle may hold more volume than a hexagon but a hexagon fits a bees needs more than a circle. This is because wax is harder to produce so by having more space in between each circle shape the more wax needed. With hexagons the least amount of wax is used complementing the bees more than any other shapes experimented with during the bee