You may want to start with The Mind-Blowing Mathematics of Sunflowers, a 2-1/2 minute video from Scientific American. A simple search for “sunflowers and Fibonacci” will yield many interesting videos. Many online videos will help you or your students to understand the relationship of the Fibonacci sequence to sunflowers much faster than static illustrations in a book. You can simply enjoy a larger version of the sunflower photo above from our ClipPix ETC website, or you may want to explore some of the sunflower’s underlying math. Later in art and math classes, I learned something of the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Mean, which added further to my fascination with sunflowers. And then everything could change again as I traced the pattern out further to the edge. And then, for a moment, I could see both directions of spirals at the same time. I’d try to trace a spiral of florets (or seeds if later in the summer) outward from the center, but then suddenly the spirals would all seem to go in the other direction. Join us each week to learn something new, be inspired and become connected to your own community by recognizing the amazing ways we are all intertwined.Sunflowers always fascinated me as a child. She is interested in human and wildlife interactions, supporting native pollinators and water resources.ĪBOUT THE BLOG: Naturalist News is a blog by University of Illinois Extension Master Naturalist staff and volunteers who bring you stories highlighting the individuals, places, wildlife and plants that make this state amazing. in zoology from Southern Illinois University and a Master of Educator from Northern Illinois University. MEET THE AUTHOR: Peggy Doty is an energy and environmental stewardship educator who has been with University of Illinois Extension for more than 20 years. Count them one way, and if possible, the other and see just how many Fibonacci spirals you encounter. I promise after reading this you will be on a mission that is hard to stop. When you look at a plant or animal see if you can find spirals. A perfect spiral, one that keeps the same scale with each turn, is considered to follow the golden ratio. A nautilus shell is an example of the golden ratio. The golden ratio is 1.61803 and if you start at 21 in the sequence and divide it by the number immediately before it you get a number very close to the golden ratio and will continue to do so as you go forward in the sequence. The larger the numbers in the sequence the more exact it will get. The Golden Ratioįibonacci’s numbers are an approximation of what is known as the golden ratio. Going clockwise my pinecone has 8 spirals but if I go counterclockwise, I find 13 spirals. Both 8 and 13 are Fibonacci numbers and their sum 21 is the next number in the sequence. The bracts growing around the base of a pinecone are in a spiral pattern. They can be counted clockwise and counterclockwise. Then you take the two preceding numbers to get the sum of the next: 1 + 2 = 3.The Fibonacci sequence of numbers happens like this: each successive number is equal to the sum of the two preceding numbers. I remember she said scientists believe about 90% of spirals follow Fibonacci numbers. She introduced me to Fibonacci numbers as we stared at the center of a sunflower. I was hooked!įibonacci was an Italian mathematician. She then explained how many of nature’s spirals were based on logarithmic sequencing. Unless it was geometry and shapes, math requirements were my nemesis. I was not excited. She was a math major and I studied wildlife. In college, my roommate pointed out my fascination with spirals in nature was based on math equations.
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