{"id":24703,"date":"2016-07-14T00:01:27","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T07:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=24703"},"modified":"2016-07-14T00:01:27","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T07:01:27","slug":"fibonacci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/fibonacci\/","title":{"rendered":"Is That a Fibonacci Blooming in Our Yard?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Purple
Columbines nod their symmetrical heads in our rock garden. Actual flowers? Or just a bunch of fibonacci numbers? Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Is ours a strictly mathematical universe? Are those\u00a0stems, leaves and buds pushing up out of the dirt in our front yard no more real than so much digital code, a string of fibonacci numbers? A recent NOVA segment, “The Great Math Mystery,”<\/a> suggests that maybe that outrageously\u00a0purple columbine blossom\u00a0bobbing in a summer breeze out there in our rock garden right now is\u00a0no more real than a series of mathematical\u00a0equations.<\/p>\n

\"California<\/a>
California native blue-eyed grass. Six petals each. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Just a Computer Game?<\/h5>\n

It’s as though we’re all living inside a computer game where creation is\u00a0all math and no substance, Max Tegmark of MIT<\/a>\u00a0opines. Math doesn’t just describe reality; it is its essence. “Mathematics is all that there is,” he says. “There is nothing else. Math actually is our physical reality.”<\/p>\n

Nature gets its shape from a mathematical ordering of things, the NOVA segment goes on to explain. A nautilus\u00a0shell, for example,\u00a0is ordered by a progression of\u00a0fibonacci numbers, in which\u00a0each number is the sum of the previous two. \u00a0Like this: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 . . . \u00a0Measure the swirling, ever widening dimensions of that nautilus\u00a0shell and they progress just like fibonaccis.<\/p>\n

So, I’ve got to ask myself, are those columbines nodding so serenely in the summer\u00a0breeze\u00a0for real? Or are they just so many digital\u00a0fibonacci numbers\u00a0working their will upon my digital\u00a0psyche?<\/p>\n

A Columbine or a Fibonacci?<\/h5>\n

Camellias,\u00a0isotomas, and the columbine descendants of the plants\u00a0my friend Bob Rothe put in thirty years\u00a0ago — they emerge every spring in our garden from mud, manure, leaf rot, earthworms and sow bugs.\u00a0They take in water and\u00a0sun.\u00a0And here they are again \u2014 with their intricate lines, dewy textures, and colors\u00a0beyond naming. Also their precise, mathematically predetermined arrangement of sepal and petal.\u00a0How do they do it?<\/p>\n

Could it be that, when I’m out in the garden, kneeling over our tenth generation columbines, getting up close with those deep purple petals — could it be that I’m witnessing fibonacci numbers in action and not an actual swirl of petals?<\/p>\n

It might be. But that takes us to a deeper question — how in the world do earthworm castings become a petal and a leaf? It’s amazing.\u00a0Is there a fibonacci sequence\u00a0for amazement?<\/p>\n

More floral amazement at “The De Young Is Bursting With Art — And Flowers.”<\/a>\u00a0 More beauty at “Beauty — What to Do About It.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Two ants investigate a camellia; both blossom and ants express fibonacci numbers. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Purple<\/a><\/p>\n

Is ours a strictly mathematical universe? Are those columbines blossoming in our garden just a string of fibonacci numbers? Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1731,34,1732,403,405,1733,88,82],"class_list":["post-24703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-columbines","tag-dont-miss","tag-fibonaccis","tag-flowers","tag-gardens","tag-mathematics","tag-nature","tag-on-the-funny-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}