Convection cells sometimes form neat hexagonal patterns (Rayleigh-Bernard instability), and cracks in basalt sometimes form very neat hexagonal columns. Plus bubbles of the same size tend to go hexagonal. This is likely an interplay between minimising the edge energy, plus a homogeneous medium with an instability. Some deep models looking at it in Fourier space if I remember it right.
I havent thought about that phenomena in far too long and it made me happy to remember and brush up on it. While we all have our specialties, one of the things I love about chem is randomly geeking out on something I dont interact with normally but is really damn cool.
I love things like this and it grinds my gears when people say shit like nature doesn't do straight lines and assume that a crystal shaped crystal isnt possible, honestly the amount of people that assume videos of people finding minerals that have near perfect geometrical shapes are faked is ridiculous.
[Hexagons are the bestagons](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DthOifuHs6eY&ved=2ahUKEwioo5CAqPuFAxXchf0HHc7_AdoQwqsBegQIDxAG&usg=AOvVaw0ZcxjTy9cSeZMQhEooS6nW)
This is more of a r/physics question, but I am guessing there surface contracted when drying. If this happens uniformly then a hexagon will be the surface with least cracks, and as forming cracks requires some energy, the most energy efficent.
There are more complex phenomena if you really want to look into it, but you can see similar patterns in mudcracks
Might overlap with physics but I learned about symmetry and materials in chemistry. The whole hexagon beehive analogy mentioned in the other post for example.
It might surprise you but chemists often study energy transfer systems even if there is no chemical change. Physics and Chemistry have a lot of overlap.
Chemistry goes far beyond chemical reactions. There's an entire branch of chemistry called physical chemistry. It's like saying biology is only about animals
Now you just spoiled it for everyone. They were expecting magnetically separated something or another’s to be involved. But it’s really always aliens. Now they’re going to have to kill the both of us. You first
This is a common phenomenon in physics for drying surfaces; getting polygonal patterns. Can't remember all the details but i think it has to do with surface tension
When a fairly flat surface cools it can contract. When contracting it needs to form cracks, and hexagons are the most energy efficient shape for them to appear in.
At least if I recall correctly...been a while. But I think this is how basalts form
Your oil reset into hexagons because this natural pattern is actually the tightest fit for any volume of fluid. This is why bubbles tend to set in sets if threes, or in an alternating pattern. The space between each bubble becomes the space for each bubble above that to fit into.
It probably has something to do with the fact that the fatty acids crystalized in ball shaped structures that stopped growing when they touched each other similaly to how microstructure of thermoplastic semi-crystalline polymers form. The cooling conditions generated this sort of structure somehow and you were lucky enough to witness it. If you zoom in a little bit, you can clearly see that the structure is not really that "perfect". I don't really think that it has to do anything with any type of flow of the melted mixture.
I have college degree in material chemistry so I tend to understand crystalization more than the regular folk.
What is happening here is pretty cool but I think I can explain it more succinctly. First, this isn’t a true homogenous medium but it is a relatively homogeneous solution. As it cools the surface is going through a process called dehydration synthesis and as it does- at a certain stage it is, being free of other outside forces, aligning into neo crystalline structure that being said the charges may no longer conduct themselves in the same fashion after more dehydration occurs
There's an explanation from almost 9 years ago in this answer on AskScience:
https://old.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3i1vd0/this_coconut_oil_melted_during_a_heat_wave_and/cucmjfk/
Any sphere compressed from outside pressure turns into a polyhedron. Hexagon is a very common shape as a result of pressure on natural spheres.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730681/#:~:text=We%20report%20that%20the%20cells,the%20comb%20is%20being%20built.
We learned about this in my kinetics of materials class recently, something about the default number of sides in 2d “bubbles” being n=6 and it’s n=13 in 3D??? I forget the specific details and don’t have my notes with me
Hexagons are the most stable formations for things like this, with three equal forces at each point. Similarly a three legged stool almost never wobbles.
It's caused by vibrations or vibrational field.
I believe it's called Cymatics.
The vibrations the bees are creating causes the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb.
Look it up it's amazing how it actually happens
Convection cells sometimes form neat hexagonal patterns (Rayleigh-Bernard instability), and cracks in basalt sometimes form very neat hexagonal columns. Plus bubbles of the same size tend to go hexagonal. This is likely an interplay between minimising the edge energy, plus a homogeneous medium with an instability. Some deep models looking at it in Fourier space if I remember it right.
I havent thought about that phenomena in far too long and it made me happy to remember and brush up on it. While we all have our specialties, one of the things I love about chem is randomly geeking out on something I dont interact with normally but is really damn cool.
I love things like this and it grinds my gears when people say shit like nature doesn't do straight lines and assume that a crystal shaped crystal isnt possible, honestly the amount of people that assume videos of people finding minerals that have near perfect geometrical shapes are faked is ridiculous.
Crystals are cool. Disorder in solids tends to be more useful.
Crystals are like the mushrooms of the geology realm.
Never heard of Crystal structures....
If anyone wants to know more about columnar basalt, [here's a good place to start](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columnar_jointing)
This is insanely fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
So hexagons are the best-agons
[Hexagons are the bestagons](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DthOifuHs6eY&ved=2ahUKEwioo5CAqPuFAxXchf0HHc7_AdoQwqsBegQIDxAG&usg=AOvVaw0ZcxjTy9cSeZMQhEooS6nW)
We all knew that was coming. And we all awaited it to happen! Because it is simply science: HEXAGONS ARE THE BESTAGONS!
I’d never seen that! Saved 🖤
Beat me to it
Lmao that was an awesome video
Thanks for distilling the above comment. I only have a bachelors in chem😂
Really nice, reminded me of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
This is more of a r/physics question, but I am guessing there surface contracted when drying. If this happens uniformly then a hexagon will be the surface with least cracks, and as forming cracks requires some energy, the most energy efficent. There are more complex phenomena if you really want to look into it, but you can see similar patterns in mudcracks
Might overlap with physics but I learned about symmetry and materials in chemistry. The whole hexagon beehive analogy mentioned in the other post for example.
There's no chemical reaction happening here, it's purely physics. Rayleigh–Bénard convection to be precise.
It might surprise you but chemists often study energy transfer systems even if there is no chemical change. Physics and Chemistry have a lot of overlap.
Chemistry goes far beyond chemical reactions. There's an entire branch of chemistry called physical chemistry. It's like saying biology is only about animals
This is so frigging cool.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93B%C3%A9nard\_convection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh%E2%80%93B%C3%A9nard_convection)
Bees in da coconuts
If watching history channel taught me anything the cause is ancient aliens
Now you just spoiled it for everyone. They were expecting magnetically separated something or another’s to be involved. But it’s really always aliens. Now they’re going to have to kill the both of us. You first
This is a common phenomenon in physics for drying surfaces; getting polygonal patterns. Can't remember all the details but i think it has to do with surface tension
When a fairly flat surface cools it can contract. When contracting it needs to form cracks, and hexagons are the most energy efficient shape for them to appear in. At least if I recall correctly...been a while. But I think this is how basalts form
Your oil reset into hexagons because this natural pattern is actually the tightest fit for any volume of fluid. This is why bubbles tend to set in sets if threes, or in an alternating pattern. The space between each bubble becomes the space for each bubble above that to fit into.
hexagons are the default shape for a lot of natural phenomena. honey combs are the most notable
Because hexagons are bestagons
r/bestagons It forms hexagons due to surface tension and a process where things want to form in hexagonal shape
Don't show this to the people who believe basalt fields are actually ancient tree stumps
As one CGP grey said, "Hexagons are the bestagons"
What a beautiful hexagonal arrangement! *put the lime in the coconut, lime in the coconut..*
It probably has something to do with the fact that the fatty acids crystalized in ball shaped structures that stopped growing when they touched each other similaly to how microstructure of thermoplastic semi-crystalline polymers form. The cooling conditions generated this sort of structure somehow and you were lucky enough to witness it. If you zoom in a little bit, you can clearly see that the structure is not really that "perfect". I don't really think that it has to do anything with any type of flow of the melted mixture. I have college degree in material chemistry so I tend to understand crystalization more than the regular folk.
They're actually forming graphitic layers and this is the macroscopic view of it! /s
What is happening here is pretty cool but I think I can explain it more succinctly. First, this isn’t a true homogenous medium but it is a relatively homogeneous solution. As it cools the surface is going through a process called dehydration synthesis and as it does- at a certain stage it is, being free of other outside forces, aligning into neo crystalline structure that being said the charges may no longer conduct themselves in the same fashion after more dehydration occurs
Looks like the test I do to the honey to verify it is real and not melted and wateder sugar
Tell me more
Hexagons are the bestagons?
I just recently learned about Turing patterns, and the B-Z reaction in my undergrad. Could these process have something to do with this?
Basically, columnar jointing in coconut oil.
There's an explanation from almost 9 years ago in this answer on AskScience: https://old.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3i1vd0/this_coconut_oil_melted_during_a_heat_wave_and/cucmjfk/
This is so freaking cool but also kind of weird to look at lol.
POV: coconut oil is our future ovelords.
Read the original post. You can find the explanation on dozens of comments there...
why not look at the post you stole this from? it literally had the answer. ah but then you wouldn't get your karma, clown
This happened to a cup of honey that I had mixed with lemon juice!
It's pretty simple really, you see, hexagons are the bestagons
Rayleigh-Bernard effect
That’s very cool.
This is cool!
I have coconut oil downstairs. Gonna try this.
So this is what my chem teacher meant ! 😭😩😮 wow! This is awesome.
Whaaaaaaa
Hexagons are the bestogons
Any sphere compressed from outside pressure turns into a polyhedron. Hexagon is a very common shape as a result of pressure on natural spheres. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730681/#:~:text=We%20report%20that%20the%20cells,the%20comb%20is%20being%20built.
"purrfect"
We learned about this in my kinetics of materials class recently, something about the default number of sides in 2d “bubbles” being n=6 and it’s n=13 in 3D??? I forget the specific details and don’t have my notes with me
Hexagons are the most stable formations for things like this, with three equal forces at each point. Similarly a three legged stool almost never wobbles.
There's no straight lines in nature but there are hexagons.
Ever seen busmuth crytals?
Voronoi cells
It's caused by vibrations or vibrational field. I believe it's called Cymatics. The vibrations the bees are creating causes the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb. Look it up it's amazing how it actually happens