Assignment #1 1. Activities Activity 1: The Fibonacci Sequence
Assignment #1 1. Activities Activity 1: The Fibonacci Sequence
Assignment #1
1. Activities
There are 21 spiral arms curving to the right and 34 spiral arms curving to the left, as seen in
these two pictures. In the Fibonacci sequence, these two numbers are consecutive. As a
result, sunflower seeds follow the Fibonacci sequence pattern.
A sunflower's seed pattern follows the Fibonacci sequence, which is 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34,
55, 89, 144... The spirals you see in the center of sunflowers are made up of this sequence.
In tree branches, there is a certain period of time where a branch will split into two smaller
branches: a main one and a sapling. The sapling retains the same size as it develops to
adulthood in the next time period, while the main branch splits into two again.
The black numbers on the right represent the
number of branches at each time step. The
Fibonacci sequence is a set of numbers in
which the next number equals the sum of the
previous two while the little blue numbers next
to each branch show its width.
Why don't you go into your garden or if you have plants/flower pots near
doorsteps or at the windows or maybe at the park nearby, and start counting leaves
and petals, and measuring rotations to see what you find.
(But remember, nature has its own rules, and it does not have to follow mathematical
patterns,
but when it does it is awesome to see.)