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# The Honeycombs of 4-Dimensional Bees ft. Joe Hanson
- URL: https://www.cascadepbs.org/show/infinite-series/episode/the-honeycombs-of-4-dimensional-bees-ft-joe-hanson-hn9bsh/
- Published: 2024-04-02T22:52:11.000Z
- Updated: 2025-08-21T06:37:20.000Z
- Description: Why is there a hexagonal structure in honeycombs? Why not squares?
- Author: Cascade PBS Staff
- Tags: Infinite Series, Season 1, Episode 32, #ZZZ_Episode_ed84fb34-c6ff-4201-bcab-9adcecf6ff3c, #episode, #ZZZ_Show_0efdefa6-fb6f-44e5-96f1-baf9a8c090e2, #geo-us, #v1.16

Why is there a hexagonal structure in honeycombs? Why not squares? Or asymmetrical blobby shapes? In 36 B.C., the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro wrote about two of the leading theories of the day. First: bees have six legs, so they must obviously prefer six-sided shapes. But that charming piece of numerology did not fool the geometers of day. They provided a second theory: Hexagons are the m