How is maths in nature?

Answer 1

How is Maths used in Nature?

Symmetry

Five axes of symmetry are traced on the petals of this flower, from each dark purple line on the petal to an imaginary line bisecting the angle between the opposing purple lines. The lines also trace the shape of a star.

Shapes - Polyhedron

For a beehive, close packing is important to maximise the use of space. Hexagons fit most closely together without any gaps; so hexagonal wax cells are what bees create to store their eggs and larvae. Hexagons are six-sided polygons, closed, 2-dimensional, many-sided figures with straight edges.

Parallel lines

In mathematics, parallel lines stretch to infinity, neither converging nor diverging. These parallel dunes in the Australian desert aren't perfect - the physical world rarely is.

Fractals

Many natural objects, such as frost on the branches of a tree, show the relationship where similarity holds at smaller and smaller scales. This fractal nature mimics mathematical fractal shapes where form is repeated at every scale. Fractals, such as the famous Mandelbrot set, cannot be represented by classical geometry.

Fibonacci sequence

Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits. Leonardo Fibonacci was a well-travelled Italian who introduced the concept of zero and the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to Europe in 1200AD. He also described the Fibonacci sequence of numbers using an idealised breeding population of rabbits. Each rabbit pair produces another pair every month, taking one month first to mature, and giving the sequence 0, 1, 1,2,3,5,8,13, each number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two.

Golden ratio (phi)

The ratio of consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence approaches a number known as the golden ratio, or phi (=1.618033989...). The aesthetically appealing ratio is found in much human architecture and plant life. A Golden Spiral formed in a manner similar to the Fibonacci spiral can be found by tracing the seeds of a sunflower from the centre outwards.

ni hoa ma wah he now she she ni lol