Philosophy
This girl is so cool I may soon have to create a tag on this blog just for her awesomeness. Last time we saw her, she gave us a nice introduction to how the Fibonacci sequence can give rise to the kinds and numbers of spirals we find in many plants.
Now, talking about plants, and considering the question of the most efficient leave arrangement for them to maximize sunlight for photosynthesis (aka, plant nom-noms), we stumble upon something incredible (that we've also seen before in this stunning animation): an irrational number, but not just any irrational number: the golden ratio!
Over the past two millenia, there's been speculation as to why one of the crazy commands in Pythagoras' nutty religion was to stay away from beans (and the fact that Pythagoras was willing to let himself get killed rather than cross through a field full of these plants).
You see where I'm going, right? I'm going to have to look up their leave distribution, but is it just possible the father of rational mathematics realized bean leaves follow this "irrational" formation and hence refused, as a matter of mathematical principle, to have anything to do with them???
- Animated Fibonacci Sculptures
When math is expressed aesthetically, and when art is expressed with the precision and rigor of math, things are bound to look stunning and inspiring. If you haven't checked out Vi Hart's amazing little doodles on the Fibonacci series, or the...
- What's Up With Pythagoras?
The first time I read Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, I could not get over the chapter on Pythagoras. As Russell claims, "Pythagoras... was intellectually one of the most important men that ever lived, both when he was wise and when...
- Doodling In Math - Spirals, Fibonacci And Plants - 3
Ok, so now that you've learned how the beauty and elegance of the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence are instantiated all over the natural world (parts 1 and 2), you're probably wowing all your friends and thinking this is the coolest thing ever......
- Bach Visualized Through Math
You've no doubt heard the claim that some of the greatest musicians of all time had an intuitive sense for mathematical proportion and harmony. It's no coincidence, for instance, that the musical scale was invented by that most eccentric of mathematicians,...
- Nature By Numbers - Fibonacci And The Golden Ratio
Among the pre-Socratics, it was Pythagoras who hypothesized that the most basic constituent of the universe wasn't some material substance but rather numbers. The idea must have seemed strange to most of his contemporaries, but over two thousands...
Philosophy
Doodling in Math - Spirals, Fibonacci and Plants - 2
Now, talking about plants, and considering the question of the most efficient leave arrangement for them to maximize sunlight for photosynthesis (aka, plant nom-noms), we stumble upon something incredible (that we've also seen before in this stunning animation): an irrational number, but not just any irrational number: the golden ratio!
Over the past two millenia, there's been speculation as to why one of the crazy commands in Pythagoras' nutty religion was to stay away from beans (and the fact that Pythagoras was willing to let himself get killed rather than cross through a field full of these plants).
You see where I'm going, right? I'm going to have to look up their leave distribution, but is it just possible the father of rational mathematics realized bean leaves follow this "irrational" formation and hence refused, as a matter of mathematical principle, to have anything to do with them???
- Animated Fibonacci Sculptures
When math is expressed aesthetically, and when art is expressed with the precision and rigor of math, things are bound to look stunning and inspiring. If you haven't checked out Vi Hart's amazing little doodles on the Fibonacci series, or the...
- What's Up With Pythagoras?
The first time I read Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, I could not get over the chapter on Pythagoras. As Russell claims, "Pythagoras... was intellectually one of the most important men that ever lived, both when he was wise and when...
- Doodling In Math - Spirals, Fibonacci And Plants - 3
Ok, so now that you've learned how the beauty and elegance of the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence are instantiated all over the natural world (parts 1 and 2), you're probably wowing all your friends and thinking this is the coolest thing ever......
- Bach Visualized Through Math
You've no doubt heard the claim that some of the greatest musicians of all time had an intuitive sense for mathematical proportion and harmony. It's no coincidence, for instance, that the musical scale was invented by that most eccentric of mathematicians,...
- Nature By Numbers - Fibonacci And The Golden Ratio
Among the pre-Socratics, it was Pythagoras who hypothesized that the most basic constituent of the universe wasn't some material substance but rather numbers. The idea must have seemed strange to most of his contemporaries, but over two thousands...