Fibonacci Numbers in Nature

You know that feeling you get when you are spinning out of control, like becoming dizzy while watching a cycling clothes dryer spinning around and around?

Now imagine this spinning dryer reflected in rows over and over by a series of mirrors, eventually seeming disappear into the distance. Smaller and smaller, all of them turning in perfect unison.

This visual example of circular infinity should conjure up an on-and-on spiraling image. But never ending ceaselessness is not simply an optical illusion set forth by trick mirrors, infinity is also a mathematical theory! In theory, infinity is an ever- growing number without an end ­– like a snake eating its own tail, or the principles of infinite and unconditional love.

Got vertigo a go-go? The world around you seems to swirl, almost as if you can suddenly feel the actual rotation of the Earth around the sun. But amazingly, even though this vortex of motion seems purely internal, downward spirals do not just exist in the mind. They are also found everywhere in nature!

It may not seem as such at first, but some numbers control parts of the natural world. Special numerical formulas, theories and equations are constantly being discovered and tested by scientists and mathematicians. Why so much effort into connecting numbers to nature?

These formulas could unlock the key to better understanding ourselves and the world in which we live.

Chemistry, whether it is chemistry between two lovers, the chemistry in the human brain or the chemistry which causes a fiery explosion, chemical equations explaining these event are just that – equations. Perhaps love is just a numbers game, after all.

Could math be the key to love? Maybe. But are numbers able to describe beauty? Absolutely.

The Fibonacci Sequence a.k.a. the golden spiral was first published by a mathematician named Fibonacci in 1202 and when drawn resembles an elongated spiral found on a hypno-coin. Closely tied to the golden ratio, the Fibonacci numbers create an elegant curved arc with spirals inwards when graphed on a plane.

The numbers follow a set sequence, are integers, which follow the mathematical pattern called recurrence relation and can be written as a set of numbers or as an equation as follows:

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89

Fn = Fn-1 + Fn-2

Historically, 1202 is not anywhere near the first documentation of this exact pattern of numbers, as it was discovered written in Sanskrit as a part of India’s studious devotion to and creation of mathematical theory much earlier in circa 200 B.C.

Aesthetically, the number sequence applies to three-dimensional forms, just as readily as it does on a two-dimensional plot point graph. The Fibonacci sequence is found above and below the sea, in plants and animals alike and can easily be observed by the unaided human eye in the spiraling forms of unfurling fern leaves and seashells.

Other than the Fibonacci numbers applying to their shape, the only thing these examples have in common is that they are living inhabitants on the same planet, as are human beings. Therefore, it is not too farfetched to infer that we too may be deeply affected by the Fibonacci Sequence and many other mathematical formulas as well?