Fun with maths
FLAMBOYANT FIBONACCI
Everyone knows that nature is beautiful, but have you ever noticed that some of its
greatest beauty is based in maths?
Have you ever looked at the patterns made by the bracts of a pine cone, or the seeds of a sunflower? Try taking
a slice of banana and counting the segments in a cross-section, or looking closely at the number of petals on a
rose. They may seem random but the numbers are related. ‘How?’ I hear you cry! Well . . . they are often
arranged in accordance with the Fibonacci sequence.
FIBONACCI SEQUENCE
In the Fibonacci sequence each new number (after the
first two) is the sum of the two before. So, after 1 and 1:
● the next number is 2 (1 + 1)
● then 3 (2 + 1)
● then 5 (3 + 2) and so on.
The numbers continue like this: 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89,
144, 233, 377 . . .
The sequence is named after an Italian mathematician
named Leonardo de Pisa, (Fibonacci was his nickname,
it translates to Son of Bonacci), who published it in his
book Liber Abaci in 1202.
While investigating rabbit breeding of all things,
Fibonacci discovered this number sequence and found
that it adhered to the Golden Ratio (see pp 14-15),
known in mathematics as phi or (ϕ) – 1.618. If you
divide any number in the Fibonnaci sequence by the
one before it, you’ll get close to phi every time.
10
SUPER SMASHIN’
SPIRALS
In mathematics, spirals are
curves that emanate from a
point and move farther out
from that point as it revolves
away. In an Archimedean
spiral, for example, the
distances remain constant,
whereas in a logarithmic
spiral, including the
Fibonacci spiral, distances
increase in sequences known
as ‘geometric progression’. ’.
We find a lot of logarithmic
spirals in the natural world.