The winters in Antarctica are brutal. Icy temperatures drop to 40 degrees below zero. The wind blows up to 87 miles per hour. To stay warm, thousands of emperor penguins squeeze into a huddle. The huddle isn’t a random blob of birds. Why? Penguins do math.

“A penguin huddle looks like organized chaos,” says François Blanchette. He’s a mathematician at the University of California. But penguin huddles aren’t chaotic at all. They have lines, shapes, and angles. A huddle is real-life geometry! (That’s the part of math that deals with shapes.)

Here’s how it works: Each bird gets a chance to hang out at the very center of the group for a bit. Each bird’s body gives off a little heat. So the center becomes the warmest place to be. The temperature can reach 100 degrees! While birds near the inside of the huddle are warming up, birds on the outside rotate around the huddle, waiting for their turn. They push penguins in the middle closer to the center. The penguins on the inside squish to the outer edge. Over a few hours, the whole huddle rotates and changes places. Each bird gets several chances to warm up.

Researchers at Cornell University are studying penguin huddles. They’ve discovered that penguins use math. A huddle starts out as a big blob. But as penguins rotate through the huddle, it changes shape. The blob turns into a hexagon with six sides. This shape is perfect for keeping all the penguins warm. Scientists used math to study the hexagon closely. What they found out was amazing! The penguins moved almost perfectly in the huddle.

Mr. Blanchette says, “We tried to think of a better way [penguins could huddle], but it always involved an omniscient (all-knowing) being who would tell them where to go.” That’s exactly it. God tells penguins how to huddle. He gave them the gift of math!