Hello and welcome
AQUILAnauts to a brand new
issue of AQUILA, and this month
we’re investigating
MARVELLOUS Maths in Nature.
Maths can tell us an awful lot about the world. For example, did
you know that you can predict the runniness of lava by looking at
the shape of a volcano’s cone? Honestly! Flatter cones produce fast
flowing, runny lava, whereas steep-sided cones produce thicker,
gooier stuff. Next time you find yourself in the midst of an erupting
volcano, why not take a minute to test this theory* and let us know
what you find.
Harvey makes an eidophone and
investigates shapes in sound. (Includes
some very funny and illuminating fart
pictures, all in the name of science of course.)
From the very very big things…
The Earth is a sphere because that’s the perfect shape for minimising
the pull of gravity on its outer edges. The Earth could never have
been cube-shaped because that would mean the corners were
further away from the centre than other points on the planet. Gravity
acts equally on everything, so the corners would need to be pulled
closer into the centre – forming the only shape in which every point
on the surface is the same distance from the centre – a sphere.
to the very very small…
Honeycomb is comprised of little hexagons because hexagons fit
most closely together without creating any inefficient little gaps.
Bees create these hexagonal wax cells to store their larvae, honey
and pollen, so they can make the most of the limited space available
using the least energy necessary.
But the world of maths is not the real world.
The world of maths is unusual because it’s perfect; it is built out of
straight lines and crisp edges, and around rules that don’t bend or
change. The real world, on the other hand, is very definitely not
perfect. It is cluttered, with blurred edges and wobbly lines. Rules we
make in the real world can be broken, bent or even destroyed
completely. In maths, parallel lines will go on forever without
converging or diverging, that’s one of Euclid’s basic rules of
geometry. In the natural world things are rarely as straightforward as
that.
Humans can impose their own geometry onto the land, dividing a
random wilderness into squares and rectangles – bringing the world
of maths into the real world to achieve our goals. Most of the time, I
appreciate having a little flexibility. After all, it’s the little
imperfections of the natural world that make it so beautiful, don’t
you think?
* AQUILA in no way endorses the stopping and checking of erupting volcanoes.
We’re just being silly.
Have a magnificent May. We look forward
to seeing you back here in June for the
edition you’ve all been waiting for. Yep, it’s
finally here (almost). The AQUILA
Harry Potter special!
Here’s looking at Euclid: International
mathematician of mystery.
Like maths, friendships can also be defined by
boundaries. The thing is relationships happen in the real
world, not the perfect maths world, and so the rules we
apply to them can be wobbly sometimes. Let’s see what
our life expert, Kate, has to say about banter!