Math Bee-haviors: The Surprising Math Abilities of Honey Bees
“…that vast book which stands forever opened before our eyes, I mean the universe, … cannot be read until we have learned the language… It is written in mathematical language, … without which… it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word.” — Galileo, the Father of Modern Science.
Everyone knows about honeybees. However, the bees have known what human mathematicians didn’t know for thousands of years. A honeybee may be the most extraordinary creature in the universe. Its body is beautifully patterned, can fly wherever it wants, spends its time near beautiful flowers, produces the most delicious and incredible substance in nature, honey, and, most importantly, it is a great mathematician.
The amount of knowledge they have of the world around them is comparable to graduating from the best science and engineering schools. They show us that mathematics is the language of nature and science. Aristotle was one of the first to document the intriguing behavior of honeybees. For centuries afterward, mathematicians have been become fascinated with bees.
I can confidently announce that if Jon Snow was the King in the North, honeybees would be kings in the insect kingdom. They have proven to be surprisingly intelligent compared to other creatures in the animal kingdom.
There is a famous misquote: “If the bee disappears from the earth’s surface, man would have no more than four years to live.”Humans could not understand the perfection of honeybees made by the Creator until the discovery of mathematics. But what makes honeybees nature’s greatest mathematicians? So far, we have five reasons to believe so:
• They have the ability to produce a geometrically impressive waxy comb.
• The reason why honeybees prefer hexagons over other shapes.
• They can quickly solve the “Travelling Salesman Problem.”
• They can grasp the idea of zero.
• They can…