Sunflowers, Fibonacci and the Zen of Patterns

Patterns calm my mind. Nature, despite its messiness, is abundantly organized. I think that’s why I take so many close-up shots of nature. When you really look at it, you see all the orderly components which make up the seeming randomness.

Listen, the next time, to a bird. You’ll find there’s a rhythm to the rant. You can almost set a metronome to it. To me, that’s pattern. Pattern, rhythm, organization… creates a whole.

In this series of sunflower photographs, you can easily see the patterns of the seeds. If you’re interested in math and patterns, this is a great place to see it in nature.

Aside from the mathematical resonance in nature, there is also art in it. I hope you enjoy my take on it.

And if you’re interested in further explanation of the mathematical genius of nature, I have two phrases for you: Fibonacci Sequence and The Golden Mean. Here are a couple of sites that do a great job of explaning:

http://momath.org/home/fibonacci-numbers-of-sunflower-seed-spirals/

http://www.popmath.org.uk/rpamaths/rpampages/sunflower.html