Friday, November 28, 2008

Fibonacci Flowers

In today's hectic world, rarely does one have time to stop and look at the flowers anymore. Fibonacci Flowers , interesting name. Have you guys ever heard of it before ? Of course every one would have had an idea what is meant by Fibonacci Series. These Fibonacci Flowers has something to do with Fibonacci series. I accidentally stumbled into one of the books in my college library. Was interested in reading the fact, so just browsed in the net and collected some information regarding it. I would like to share the information with you guys. Here it is …..

Plants illustrate the Fibonacci series in the numbers and arrangements of petals, leaves, sections and seeds.

*?* Why is it that the number of petals in a flower is often one of the following numbers: 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 or 55? For example, the lily has three petals, buttercups have five of them, the chicory has 21 of them, the daisy has often 34 or 55 petals, etc.

*?* Furthermore, when one observes the heads of sunflowers, one notices two series of curves, one winding in one sense and one in another; the number of spirals not being the same in each sense. Why is the number of spirals in general either 21 and 34, either 34 and 55, either 55 and 89, or 89 and 144?

*?* The same for pinecones : why do they have either 8 spirals from one side and 13 from the other, or either 5 spirals from one side and 8 from the other?

*?* Finally, why is the number of diagonals of a pineapple also 8 in one direction and 13 in the other?

Plants that are formed in spirals, such as pinecones, pineapples and sunflowers, illustrate Fibonacci numbers. Many plants produce new branches in quantities that are based on Fibonacci numbers. The spiral arrangements of leaves on a stem, and the number of petals, sepals and spirals in flower heads during the development of most plants, represent successive numbers in the famous series discovered in the thirteenth century by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci, in which each number is the sum of the previous two (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55...). Seeds on the heads of sunflowers, for example, are arranged in two sets of spiral rows, one curving to the left and the other to the right.



If you want to know more about Fibonacci series and nature …
Have a go at this link …

http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat2.html
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/8479/title/The_Mathematical_Lives_of_Plants

Still there are many such facts which you can look for yourself .