Penguin Math 
   
   They don't fly, but they know their geometry. 

   Antarctic temperatures can drop to minus 40 with winds at cat 1 hurricane speeds. 
To stay warm, thousands of emperor penguins squeeze into huddles ... but not randomly.

   Their formations align with physics and geometry concepts, say researchers, who validated an earlier study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

   Penguins move so each one spends time at the center of the cluster, which can reach 100 degrees F. Birds on the windward side quickly move to the leeward side. They push leeward penguins to the middle, and the center moves out to the windward edge. Over a few hours, penguins cycle through these rotations multiple times. 

  Huddles begin as misshapen blobs. But as they shift, the boundary of the pack begins to form a hexagon. Each penguin lines up as though it was on the hexagonal grid of a honeycomb. This formation allows for a dense, optimum arrangement for sharing warmth. 

   Accounting for humidity, wind speed and solar radiation, their movements are so mathematically precise that researchers could accurately predict how individuals within the huddle would maneuver. Without knowing it, the birds formed an almost perfect arrangement. 

   A mathematician wrote: "We tried to think of a better way (penguins could huddle), but it always involved an omniscient being who would tell them where to go." 

   Can you imagine thousands of humans cooperating that way? 

         Jimmy