pointed cells
prism and a pointed solid
Check the checkbox 'pointed cell' and look how the prism transform into a pointed solid.
By dragging the pink point you can change the angle of the pointed ending.
While rotating the 3D screan you can clearly see that the back plate is formed by three not coplanair rhombusses. The volume of the cell remains the same.
angle and dimensions of the rhombus
You will guess that the pointed shape has something to do with minimising the amount of wax to build the honey comb.
In the next worksheets we will try to formulate the dimensions of the rhombus as a function of the radius of the polygon. Next we will examine how we can minimise the total area of the cell..