Why does a sunflower have a discounted face?
Have you ever noticed that ID cards, bank cards, subway tickets, train tickets, student cards, meal cards, and all kinds of membership cards have roughly the same aspect ratio? Try measuring the cards you have on hand, and you will find that these cards'aspect ratio is close to 1:0.618。
That's right, this value is the legendary"golden ratio" φ, approximately equal to 1.618. You may have also heard of the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number is the sum of the previous two numbers, and the ratio of two adjacent numbers approaches φ.
However, in reality, the proportions that people find beautiful are not necessarily exactly equal to φ. One experiment showed that as long as a rectangle falls within the range of 1.4-1.7, people will find it attractive.
Nature, however, "understands" the meaning of φ better than humans do.
Sometimes,plants must "consider" spatial economy. Take inflorescences, for example. Some plants must arrange as many small flowers together as possible to enhance the appeal of the "group of small flowers," while also needing to reduce interference among the small flowers. The less overlap between the small flowers, the better, ensuring that these small flowers have equal space. Simulations have found that rotating 137.5° (2π×(1-0.618)) to place each flower is the most reasonable design, and in reality the inflorescences of Asteraceae plants (such as sunflowers) are arranged exactly this way.
The inflorescence of a sunflower. Image: Pixabay
Does this spiral arrangement look familiar? Image: TeXample.net
Count the spiral lines extending outward from the center of a sunflower, and you will also find that on a sunflower head with 300 small flowers, you can find 34 counterclockwise curves and 21 clockwise curves. Larger flower heads can reveal more spiral lines, but the number of spiral lines is alwaysa Fibonacci number. Similarly, people have also found that the flowers and seeds of pineapples and pinecones are arranged in a similar way, with some having 8 spiral lines and some having 13. 34, 21, 8, 13 - these are all Fibonacci numbers.
The spirals of a pinecone: 13 counterclockwise, 8 clockwise. Image: pinterest.com
You could say thatnature chose 0.618。
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