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August 13, 2010

Strange But True!

Q. Is God a mathematician?

A. Certainly the universe seems to be reliably understood using mathematics, answers Clifford Pickover in “The Math Book.” Nature is mathematics. Many of the loveliest things in nature follow strict mathematical patterns, such as the light rays forming a rainbow or the arrangement of seeds in a sunflower. This arrangement can be understood using Fibonacci numbers, where each term from the third onward is the sum of the previous two: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on. Sunflower heads, like those of other flowers, contain families of interlaced seed spirals — one winding clockwise, the other counterclockwise. The number of spirals in such heads, as well as the number of petals in flowers, is very often a Fibonacci number.


 
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