Juan, Angela Marie C.

BSMA 1-3

“Patterns in Nature - Symmetry, Fractals, Tessellations and More Geometry!”

Geometry in organisms are not unsual in most organisms on Earth such as

animals which exhibits many forms of symmetry. In the video, the speaker introduced
some general patterns of symmetry in nature. The first one is the ‘bilateral’ symmetry in
which one plane can divide the organism into two mirror images (e.g., human body and
butterfly). Second is the ‘radial’ symmetry in which more than two planes can divide the
organism into equal or identical parts (e.g., coral polyp). Third, ‘pentaradial’ symmetry
which five planes divide the organism evenly (e.g., sea star). Lastly, the ‘spherical’
symmetry which can be cut into two identical haves through any cut that runs through its
center point of the organism (e.g., earth).

Fractals patterns are ever repeating iterations of a single pattern. They can be
found in cabbage, cauliflower and spiral aloe. Scientists suggest that fractals in nature
occure because these are great for maximizing a surface area. The way to get the most
surface area into any given three-dimensional space is by means of fractal structuring.
While some scientists suggest that plants exhibit more fractal patterns as means of
compacting its genome –a possible evolutionary advantage. It looks fractal to us, but for
the plants it’s saving them from DNA code. Because less DNA for plants will lead to less
chance of mutation which leads to a higher survival rate.

I was amazed when he (the speaker) showed how snowflakes are formed and
how from a tiny dust grain turns into a unique and delicate hexagonal structure which
falls to the earth along with different other snowflakes.

Another pattern that we see in nature is spiral –shapes which wind in a gradually
widening or tightening curve (e.g., bighorn sheep, nautilus shell and snail). Spirals are
also visible in sunflowers and pinecones which is when you try to count, is adjacent to
the Fibonacci Sequence. Amazing! He tried to relate it with the universe because a
spiral can also be seen in a galaxy, but he’s not sure if it says something deeper about
the universe but still, it’s very interesting.

Meanders are also a pattern in nature and these are curves that wind or bend
(e.g., river, a dry ground or desert and snakes). And lastly is the tessellations, in which
a pattern made of identical shapes fit together with no gaps and do not overlap.
Honeycomb is an example of a tessellation pattern and it is believed that bees build
hexagonal shaped nests so that they can maximize nest space and minimize cell
perimeter. A back of a tortoise shell and a snake also show some kind of tessellations
patterns.
 Nature is indeed beautiful. And it is just so interesting that these kind of patterns
exist in them so effortlessly. It’s amazing how we don’t usually give much attention to
these things, yet are so beautiful when you look at them and try to appreciate it.