The Fibonacci series is an intriguing piece of mathematics with deep roots in the natural world. The series runs:
0 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 etc
Each term is derived by adding the previous two (except for the beginning which is slightly irregular). The series has long had a quasi mystical status because the pattern appears in many natural phenomena, especially flowers and seeds such as sunflower seedhead spirals and pine cones. Recent experiments have shown what balance of chemical repulsions in the growing tip produces this pattern.
The series has been used in architecture but the most intriguing example I’ve seen is the Lily Impeller, described by the Australian inventor Jay Harman. This looks like a nautilus shell, that many-chambered wonder of the sea, and that's because the nautilus too uses the Fibonacci series. The Lily Impeller is more energy efficient than standard screw action mixers. It has been claimed as an example of bioinspiration which it is but surely the maths came first? The Fibonacci series would exist in maths even if no plant had ever exploited it. In this case, nature is a mathomimic. Since maths seems to lie behind all of the patterns of nature you could say that mathomicry is the organizing principle of nature and the mother of biomimicry.
0 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 etc
Each term is derived by adding the previous two (except for the beginning which is slightly irregular). The series has long had a quasi mystical status because the pattern appears in many natural phenomena, especially flowers and seeds such as sunflower seedhead spirals and pine cones. Recent experiments have shown what balance of chemical repulsions in the growing tip produces this pattern.
The series has been used in architecture but the most intriguing example I’ve seen is the Lily Impeller, described by the Australian inventor Jay Harman. This looks like a nautilus shell, that many-chambered wonder of the sea, and that's because the nautilus too uses the Fibonacci series. The Lily Impeller is more energy efficient than standard screw action mixers. It has been claimed as an example of bioinspiration which it is but surely the maths came first? The Fibonacci series would exist in maths even if no plant had ever exploited it. In this case, nature is a mathomimic. Since maths seems to lie behind all of the patterns of nature you could say that mathomicry is the organizing principle of nature and the mother of biomimicry.
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