Little did you know that not only humans (and computers) can use math! Here are a few interesting examples of math used by BUGS!
1) Bees.
Bees use math?! Think about it - what is the shape of the cells in which they make their honeycomb? In ancient times (36 B.C.) “The Honeybee Conjecture” was proposed to provide a solution to the question of why bees use honeycomb in hexagonal form. It seems that this shape is the most optimal for their honey storage. As the hexagons fit together without space in between, the only other two shapes that could have also fit as such would be squares or equilateral triangles. The smaller the perimeter of the shape, the better for the bees so they can use up less wax - and it turns out hexagons would be the one among those three shape options with smallest perimeter!
2) Ants.
Desert ants survive in open, windy land. Contrary to some ants, they cannot use scent or landmarks to remember how to get home when they leave to find food. Instead they have to use geometry and counting. They can remember how far they are from home by counting steps, and to remember which direction to return to by calculating their path angle against the sun. It’s an incredible amount of work and memory for such a tiny creature!
3) Cicadas.
Why do cicadas exist on a 17-year life cycle? What does the number 17 have as one of it’s properties? Yep, it’s a prime number. This means that other animals (predators!) with life cycles will rarely coincide with their 17-year cycle. For example, if a predator has a 3-year cycle, it will only line up with the cicadas every 3x17=51 years. They also picked a higher prime number so that they don’t emerge very often - this keeps their predator population down (they aren’t around to feed them too often), which keeps them away from extinction.
A lot of other animals use math in their lives, for survival. Maybe a topic to discuss another time :)
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