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Hexagons in the natural world

Marcus du Sautoy visits a bee-keeper and explores how bees create their honeycombs. If they are going to tessellate they have a limited number of regular polygons they could choose from, but the hexagon is the most efficient – giving the maximum storage area for the least amount of wax. In fact, the bees do not create hexagons, but circular cells which, as is shown using bubble arrays, pull together to make hexagons due to surface tension. This same principle is behind other polygon formations in the natural world too.

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5 minutes

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