Mathematical Nature. Polygonia c-album, Serrated Comma Butterfly, on Sneezewort, Achillea ptarmica, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Leonardo Fibonacci (c.1175-c.1250) introduced our numeral system (originally Hindu-Arabic) to the West in 1202. He also described the famous mathematical sequence named for him: every number after the first two is the sum of the two previous ones.
Many things in nature develop according to that sequence, e.g. this Sneezewort, Achillea ptarmica, in which the branching shoots grow in line with it.
Our wonderful Polygonia c-album, Serrated Comma Butterfly, reminded me, too, of this mathematics. We've all heard the urban myth of the Peruvian Butterfly that by the flapping of its wings causes great storms over the Alps and various other far-off places. This phenomenon might be described in terms of an exponential dependence on initial - slight - conditions. This kind of exponential can also be thought of as a Fibonacci Sequence.
Mathematical Nature. Polygonia c-album, Serrated Comma Butterfly, on Sneezewort, Achillea ptarmica, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Leonardo Fibonacci (c.1175-c.1250) introduced our numeral system (originally Hindu-Arabic) to the West in 1202. He also described the famous mathematical sequence named for him: every number after the first two is the sum of the two previous ones.
Many things in nature develop according to that sequence, e.g. this Sneezewort, Achillea ptarmica, in which the branching shoots grow in line with it.
Our wonderful Polygonia c-album, Serrated Comma Butterfly, reminded me, too, of this mathematics. We've all heard the urban myth of the Peruvian Butterfly that by the flapping of its wings causes great storms over the Alps and various other far-off places. This phenomenon might be described in terms of an exponential dependence on initial - slight - conditions. This kind of exponential can also be thought of as a Fibonacci Sequence.