Do Plants Know Math? - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Do Plants Know Math? write by Stéphane Douady. This book was released on 2024-09-10. Do Plants Know Math? available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.
Mathematical Lives
Mathematical Lives - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Mathematical Lives write by CLAUDIO BARTOCCI. This book was released on 2010-10-01. Mathematical Lives available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Steps forward in mathematics often reverberate in other scientific disciplines, and give rise to innovative conceptual developments or find surprising technological applications. This volume brings to the forefront some of the proponents of the mathematics of the twentieth century, who have put at our disposal new and powerful instruments for investigating the reality around us. The portraits present people who have impressive charisma and wide-ranging cultural interests, who are passionate about defending the importance of their own research, are sensitive to beauty, and attentive to the social and political problems of their times. What we have sought to document is mathematics’ central position in the culture of our day. Space has been made not only for the great mathematicians but also for literary texts, including contributions by two apparent interlopers, Robert Musil and Raymond Queneau, for whom mathematical concepts represented a valuable tool for resolving the struggle between ‘soul and precision.’
Nature's Numbers
Nature's Numbers - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Nature's Numbers write by Ian Stewart. This book was released on 2008-08-04. Nature's Numbers available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "It appears to us that the universe is structured in a deeply mathematical way. Falling bodies fall with predictable accelerations. Eclipses can be accurately forecast centuries in advance. Nuclear power plants generate electricity according to well-known formulas. But those examples are the tip of the iceberg. In Nature's Numbers, Ian Stewart presents many more, each charming in its own way.. Stewart admirably captures compelling and accessible mathematical ideas along with the pleasure of thinking of them. He writes with clarity and precision. Those who enjoy this sort of thing will love this book."—Los Angeles Times
The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants
The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants write by Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz. This book was released on 2012-12-06. The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Now available in an affordable softcover edition, this classic in Springer's acclaimed Virtual Laboratory series is the first comprehensive account of the computer simulation of plant development. 150 illustrations, one third of them in colour, vividly demonstrate the spectacular results of the algorithms used to model plant shapes and developmental processes. The latest in computer-generated images allow us to look at plants growing, self-replicating, responding to external factors and even mutating, without becoming entangled in the underlying mathematical formulae involved. The authors place particular emphasis on Lindenmayer systems - a notion conceived by one of the authors, Aristid Lindenmayer, and internationally recognised for its exceptional elegance in modelling biological phenomena. Nonetheless, the two authors take great care to present a survey of alternative methods for plant modelling.
Botany in a Day
Botany in a Day - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Botany in a Day write by Thomas J. Elpel. This book was released on 2013. Botany in a Day available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Explains the patterns method of plant identification, describing eight key patterns for recognizing more than 45,000 species of plants, and includes an illustrated reference guide to plant families.
