Why does nature always prefer hexagon? What are its characteristics? The formation and growth of natural objects are influenced by the surrounding space and materials. A regular hexagon consists of three non-overlapping regular polygons covered by a plane. Among these three regular polygons (regular hexagon, square and regular triangle), hexagon occupies the largest area and the least material. Another important feature of a regular hexagon is that it has six axes of symmetry, so it can be rotated in various ways without changing its shape.
When many balls are placed next to each other in a box or container, each surrounded ball is tangent to the other six balls. When we draw some line segments passing through the tangent points between these balls, the figure tangent to the balls is a regular hexagon. Imagine these balls as soap bubbles, and we can make a simple explanation for why a group of soap bubbles meet in the form of triplet when they gather. The so-called triple is that all three intersecting angles are 120, and as we all know, the inner angle of a regular hexagon is 120.
In nature, the triple connection is manifested in many fields, such as the composition of corn kernels on the corncob, the internal structure of banana pulp, and the cracks in dry soil that we usually see. .
Today, the discovery of a new form of hexagon in nature is as exciting as the first discovery. Astronomers have been paying attention to large magellanic cloud since 1987, where a supernova 1987A was observed. It's not the first time that Nova has seen bubbles after the explosion, but it's the first time that bubbles gather together in a honeycomb shape. Wang Lifan of the University of Manchester, England, discovered a "beehive" as huge as about 30 light-years× 90 light-years, consisting of about 20 bubbles with a diameter of about 10 light-year. He speculated that the hexagonal structure of bubbles is probably formed by a cluster that produces huge winds, and this cluster is composed of stars of similar size and speed, which may have evolved for thousands of years.
Careful people will find that snowflakes in nature have a hexagonal shape, and snowflakes also reveal the symmetry and fractal geometry of hexagons. In addition, if the cork snowflake curve is used to simulate the growth of snowflake, then the fractal of this snowflake is generated by an equilateral triangle.
It can be seen that Euclidean geometry and non-Euclidean geometry are linked by the relationship among equilateral triangles, regular hexagons and fractal snowflakes.
Many objects in nature have provided mathematical models, and many of them are still stimulating the discovery of mathematical models. Nature has a way to achieve balance and delicate balance in creation. The key to understanding natural works is to use mathematics and science. Galileo made this very clear. He once said that the universe is written in mathematical language. Mathematical tools provide us with the means to try to understand, explain and reproduce natural phenomena. In nature, one mathematical discovery leads to the next. So what will happen when a hexagon is found in outer space? This question may only have time to answer.