Aedrian Joshua O.

De Castro August 30, 2020

1CMT Mathematics in the Modern World

The Golden Ratio

The photograph shown above illustrates how the golden ratio or Fibonacci
sequence manifests in nature. Looking at the leaves of the plant, it can be seen that they
are positioned on a spiral that winds around the center. The dispersion of the plant’s
leaves, as beautiful as it is, isn’t a matter of nature being aesthetic pleasing; rather, it’s
about nature being mathematically efficient. Starting at one leaf, each of them is arranged
so that the newly sprouted leaf does not obscure the leaves below it. As such, each leaf
receives adequate sunlight to photosynthesize efficiently. This is done by growing out a
leaf at a certain angle relative to the prior leaf in accordance to the golden ratio. With each
generation, the rotation of leaves would close in on the golden angle (137.5 °), which can
be derived from the value of 1 over Phi to the second power times the total number of
degrees in a circle ((1/phi^2)*360).