Geometry in nature

Hello everybody! This week we are talking about geometry in nature. You might be asking yourselves, in what way can we see geometry in nature. Well, very easy! Lines, curves, angles, cubes, spheres and other geometric figures are part of the urban and natural landscape. Let me talk to you about it through some examples.

 

The very first one is a snowflake. Snowflakes commonly adopt a geometric shape based on the hexagon, although depending on humidity and temperature conditions, snowflakes can form with a geometry based on the triangle or dodecagon.

Look at this amazing plant right here! A spiral aloe. This one is a circular plant with a fascinating spiral leaf arrangement which is better seen from above. It grows up to 3 metres wide, with dozens of leaves spiralling clockwise or counterclockwise. Unfortunately it is an endangered species in its native Lesotho, a small country in Africa.

We can find many irregular shapes in nature, and we can also find many very regular ones which can be described with detailed mathematical precision, like the nautilus shell for example, which can be associated with a logarithmic spiral. 

It is intended to show that mathematics is everywhere and that it is not just about beads and numbers, but that we are constantly interacting with mathematics without even realising it.

Another example of this that I am talking about could be the one from the image above: a bee panel. The bees build the honeycomb cells with a hexagonal geometric shape. And it is said that from an architectural point of view, all the faces of the hexagon are joined together, allowing a distribution in such a way that there are no gaps, thus making full use of all the space. Truly fascinating!

We continue with fruit. If we cut a Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) crosswise, we get an almost perfect 8-pointed star inside it. These are the diagonals of an almost regular octagon, running from vertex to opposite vertex. A special pattern in this orange-coloured, delicious-tasting, hard-fleshed fruit, which can be peeled like an apple. And speaking of apples (Malus domestica), note the star that is created by the seed receptacles if we cut equally crosswise. Impressive!

But how about this?

How astonishing is the image I have just shown you. The 360º circumference of a kiwi cut crosswise is divided into 36 equal circular sectors of 10º each. A natural kiwi pattern that makes me wonder how it is possible!

Ipomoea or Morning Glory is the name given to hundreds of herbaceous climbing plants whose flowers bloom and die every day. Some seeds of these plants have laxative effects and others have harmful health effects, similar to LSD. In the previous picture you can see the 5-pointed star inside an almost perfect regular pentagon.

 

The Giant's Causeway is an area containing some 40.000 basalt hexagonal columns from the relatively rapid cooling of lava in a volcanic crater or caldera, which occurred some 60 million years ago. It is located on the north-east coast of the island of Ireland and let me just tell you how stunning this looks. I think this just became top of my list of places to visit before I die list! 

Let me share with you a video about it in case you want to know more about it! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBARpgnYKvU&t=5s&ab_channel=NationalGeographic 

Also in animals we find different geometric shapes that are worth commenting on. 

In the wings of the dragon fly in the previous image we can see squares, triangles, pentagons, hexagons, trapezoids. Some regular and some not. Still, amazing how this is something that has always been there.

To finish, let me sahre these videos with you of many more examples of geometry in nature! Here are the links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7rn8lxhsNI&ab_channel=NewAcropolisCulturalOrganization%2CIndia 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9X4ytjFlh4&ab_channel=BeautifulWorld

I hope you got the point. There are many places in nature in which we can find geometry that it is almost overwhelming. I hope you liked today's post. Do not hesitate on commenting what you thought of it!

See you soon!! :)