Because hexagons are the bestagons.
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
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TIL all the Civilization maps are on Saturn
Only after civilization 3
*civ 4.
5 was the first one with a hex grid
Which is still my favorite for some reason
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That makes sense...
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It's less weird when you realize it's not a hexagon, it's a sine wave in cylindrical coordinates. There are a lot of negative feedback loops such that a sine wave can turn into a standing wave. You just have to get a little lucky with a couple important things like your rossby number et voila, hexagon.
this.ToEnglish()
Take this, bend it around the pole so it becomes circular.
A planet with an investment chart for a pole. WHY.
sine waves aren't strictly an investment thing, they are more of a general math thing and can be used to model a wide variety of stuff (in this case this graph is for investing, but for example it comes up in physics a lot)
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Capitalism ruining everything.
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That doesn't sound less weird.
Because Saturn is Catan.
Things like Hexagons and the golden spiral occurring in nature are interesting - but very well-travelled.
And I don't mean she travels a lot. -Bender Bending Rodriguez
TLDR That's what happens when circles get squished together.
Because storms want to be circles but any given gas giants atmosphere is basically a series of nothing but storms and when you tile circles you get a hexagonal grid due to the spaces in between them?
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Standing wave. Earth kind of has one in the jet stream (3 peaks and troughs though, usually), but you can't see it with visible light.
Aguiar, Ana C. Barbosa, et al. "A laboratory model of Saturn’s North Polar Hexagon." Icarus 206.2 (2010): 755-763.
Get out of here with your real answers. 😜
I think the actual answer even with this source is, we sort of have some clues, but we have more questions too.
Hexagons are just nature's way of making arrays of triangles.
Based on what I recall of the explanation by the person who figured it out: spinning makes fluid near the edge spin faster than fluid near the middle. The difference in speed creates a wave. Since it's finite and moving, the wave interferes with itself and because of math, makes a hexagon. Something about how the wave pattern changes density and brings different glasses to the surface on the planets.
Then they showed an example by spinning a bucket, and it kinda fell flat because they had to explain that a bucket isn't a sphere so you have to spin it just right to get it to work, but it did work in the end.
You get hexagons as well when you drill a countersink bit into plywood. Something something layers.
Did not know that so I looked on Google.
AI Overview That statement is incorrect. Drilling a countersink bit into plywood (or any wood) produces a smooth, conical hole, not a hexagonal one.
Followed by every article talking about why the bits make hexagons, with videos and pictures.
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Because the fox made it into the henhouse.
Now all the hexagon.
I feel like I just got goatsed by Saturn
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