Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Do Plants Know Math?: Unwinding the Story of Plant Spirals, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Now

Do Plants Know Math?: Unwinding the Story of Plant Spirals, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Now

Douady, Stéphane
Golé, Christophe
Dumais, Jacques

Hardcover

General MathematicsGeometryPhysics

Publisher Price: $27.95

ISBN10: 0691158657
ISBN13: 9780691158655
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: Sep 24 2024
Pages: 352
Weight: 2.70
Height: 1.10 Width: 7.60 Depth: 9.40
Language: English

A breathtakingly illustrated look at botanical spirals and the scientists who puzzled over them

Charles Darwin was driven to distraction by plant spirals, growing so exasperated that he once begged a friend to explain the mystery if you wish to save me from a miserable death. The legendary naturalist was hardly alone in feeling tormented by these patterns. Plant spirals captured the gaze of Leonardo da Vinci and became Alan Turing's final obsession. This book tells the stories of the physicists, mathematicians, and biologists who found themselves magnetically drawn to Fibonacci spirals in plants, seeking an answer to why these beautiful and seductive patterns occur in botanical forms as diverse as pine cones, cabbages, and sunflowers.

Do Plants Know Math? takes you down through the centuries to explore how great minds have been captivated and mystified by Fibonacci patterns in nature. It presents a powerful new geometrical solution, little known outside of scientific circles, that sheds light on why regular and irregular spiral patterns occur. Along the way, the book discusses related plant geometries such as fractals and the fascinating way that leaves are folded inside of buds. Your neurons will crackle as you begin to see the connections. This book will inspire you to look at botanical patterns--and the natural world itself--with new eyes.

Featuring hundreds of gorgeous color images, Do Plants Know Math? includes a dozen creative hands-on activities and even spiral-plant recipes, encouraging readers to explore and celebrate these beguiling patterns for themselves.

Also in

Geometry

View All