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TY - CHAP
TI - Front Matter
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
DB - JSTOR
EP - vi
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - i
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.1
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TY - CHAP
TI - Table of Contents
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
DB - JSTOR
EP - xii
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - vii
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.2
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TY - CHAP
TI - Preface
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
DB - JSTOR
EP - xix
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - xiii
T1 - The motivation for the book; Acknowledgments; Credits
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
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TY - CHAP
TI - PROLOGUE
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - At about eleven years of age, I developed a passion for astronomy. I read
everything about it I could get my hands on. My parents were very supportive, but
my father, being a farmworker, had a very meager weekly income, about $30 per week
at that time, so not a lot of money was available to support my astronomy habit.
However, they did have a small insurance policy on my life, which they cashed in
for about the equivalent of $50, as I recall. With this I bought a beautiful but
somewhat dented old brass-tubed telescope: a 3-inch refractor (with
DB - JSTOR
EP - xxiv
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - xx
T1 - Why I Might Never Have Written This Book
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
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TY - CHAP
TI - The Confluence of Nature and Mathematical Modeling
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - In recent years, as I have walked daily to and from work, I have started to
train myself to observe the sky, the birds, butterflies, trees, and flowers,
something I had not done previously in a conscious way (although I did watch out
for fast-moving cars and unfriendly dogs). Despite living in suburbia, I find that
there are many wonderful things to see: clouds exhibiting wave-like patterns,
splotches of colored light some 22 degrees away from the sun (sundogs, or
parhelia), wave after wave of Canada geese in “vee” formation, the way waves (and a
following region of calm water)
DB - JSTOR
EP - 16
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 1
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
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TY - CHAP
TI - Estimation:
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - The second quotation makes much the same point as that by John Tukey over two
millennia later (see chapter 1). We may not be as erudite as Aristotle or as
brilliant as Enrico Fermi, but we can learn to apply elementary reasoning to obtain
“ballpark estimates” to problems (subsequently named<em>Fermi problems</em>) in the
manner attributed to that great physicist. The rationale behind such estimates has
been well described by Hans Christian von Baeyer, who wrote in<em>The Fermi
Solution</em>, Fermi’s intent was to show that although, at the outset, even the
answer’s order of magnitude is unknown, one can
DB - JSTOR
EP - 30
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 17
T1 - The Power of Arithmetic in Solving Fermi Problems
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
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TY - CHAP
TI - Shape, Size, and Similarity:
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - The phrase<em>dimensional analysis</em>will be used in two senses in this
chapter. The first one is somewhat loosely defined, but essentially it concerns the
way that physical characteristics of an object (such as surface area, volume,
strength, power) vary with its size<em>L</em>. “Size” here means any representative
linear dimension of the object—height, width, leg length, and so on—provided that
dimension is used consistently in all comparisons made for a particular property.
This is particularly useful (and valid) when the objects are geometrically similar,
and that assumption will be made in much of this section. It is
DB - JSTOR
EP - 56
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 31
T1 - The Problem of Scale
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
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TY - CHAP
TI - Meteorological Optics I:
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - Before we can sensibly discuss shadows cast by the sun, we need to know how
large a source of light (in an angular sense) the sun appears to be in the sky; it
is about half a degree of arc, as will be established below. It is well known that
the planets move around the sun in ellipses with the sun at one focus; this, after
all, is Kepler’s first law. The perihelion (= closest)
distance<tex-math>${r_p}$</tex-math>of the earth from the sun is about<tex-
math>$1.47 \times {10^8}$</tex-math>km (or about<tex-math>$9.14 \times
{10^7}$</tex-math>mi); the aphelion (= farthest) distance<tex-math>${r_a}$</tex-
math>is approximately<tex-math>$1.52</tex-math>
DB - JSTOR
EP - 79
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 57
T1 - Shadows, Crepuscular Rays, and Related Optical Phenomena
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
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TY - CHAP
TI - Meteorological Optics II:
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - How much mathematics shall we get into here? Not a great deal, in fact; for
those interested in pursuing the mathematics to a much greater level, refer to the
author’s review and the many references therein. But first some background material
on the history and elementary physics of the rainbow is in order. A good overview
of the problem can be found in the book by Banks (1999); for more historical and
scientific details, those by Boyer and Lee and Fraser are highly recommended. The
rainbow is at one and the same time one of the most beautiful visual displays
DB - JSTOR
EP - 117
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 80
T1 - A “Calculus I” Approach to Rainbows, Halos, and Glories
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
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TY - CHAP
TI - Clouds, Sand Dunes, and Hurricanes
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - In this chapter, much of the “scene” is set for the following two chapters on
waves and stability, because clouds are wonderful indicators of what kinds of wave
motion or atmospheric instabilities are occurring far above us. Although the
mathematical descriptions of some of these phenomena (with the exception of the
hurricane) are left to chapters 7 and 8, by the time you reach them you will have
been exposed to the underlying physics necessary to formulate such descriptions.
Clouds consist of water (in one form or another) and are high altitude fog; or
better, fog is cloud at ground
DB - JSTOR
EP - 138
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 118
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.10
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TY - CHAP
TI - (Linear) Waves of All Kinds
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - Wave motion can occur in a wide variety of situations in the natural world,
and it is something with which we are all familiar. We can observe waves on the
surfaces of oceans and lakes or when a pebble is dropped into a pond; waves are
generated and propagated when a musical instrument is played (correctly or
otherwise), when a radio station transmits programs, or when a solar flare occurs.
In the previous chapter we noted that clouds can often be indicators of wave
motion, especially in the presence of wind. Violent disturbances on or below the
earth’s surface, such
DB - JSTOR
EP - 172
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 139
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.11
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TY - CHAP
TI - [Illustrations]
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
DB - JSTOR
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.12
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TY - CHAP
TI - Stability
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - The second quotation above is from the very first professional presentation I
made in fear and trepidation as a first-year graduate student. I remember the
occasion as if it were yesterday; I was talking about a particular class of waves
that may exist in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars (or perhaps just in my
mind), and the above line brought a laugh. I needed it, and so did the audience.
Now, about thirty years later, I had intended to use it in the next chapter, which
introduces the topic of nonlinear waves, but since this present chapter
DB - JSTOR
EP - 193
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 173
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.13
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TY - CHAP
TI - Bores and Nonlinear Waves
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - What is a bore? The answers will vary depending on whether one is at a
cocktail party, the banks of the River Severn in England, or the Bay of Fundy in
Nova Scotia (to name but two of many geographical locations). We will focus our
attention on tidal bores, which, as David Lynch points out in an article of the
same title, are remarkable hydrodynamic phenomena. A tidal bore is the incoming
tide in the form of a wave (technically, it is called a<em>solitary</em>wave)
moving upstream in a river that empties into the sea. Even after the bore
DB - JSTOR
EP - 212
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 194
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.14
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TY - CHAP
TI - The Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio (τ)
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - Although originally considered by Fibonacci of Pisa in 1202 in connection
with (idealized) rabbit population growth, the infinite set of numbers 1, 1, 2, 3,
5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . . has a wonderful variety of properties and
applications (but not as many as some have claimed—the article by Markowsky,
discussed below, deals with various misconceptions about the golden ratio τ in
connection with many human “constructions”). Before discussing those properties, I
should clarify what I mean by the word “idealized” above. The rabbits were supposed
to reproduce according to strict rules concerning their
DB - JSTOR
EP - 230
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 213
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.15
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TY - CHAP
TI - Bees, Honeycombs, Bubbles, and Mud Cracks
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - A polygon, as the old joke goes, is not a dead parrot (but then neither do
geometers move in the best circles). There is something fascinating about the
symmetries of a regular polygon, and when polygons are approximated in nature, such
configurations capture the attention of even the most casual observer. When
outside, look up, and on occasion you may see hexagonal convection-cell clouds;
look around, and you may see mud cracks or salt flats exhibiting the same type of
pattern; the Giant’s Causeway on the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland is composed
of some 40,000 basalt column formations, most
DB - JSTOR
EP - 253
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 231
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.16
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TY - CHAP
TI - River Meanders, Branching Patterns, and Trees
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - As a caveat to some of this chapter (river meanders), and to a lesser extent
part of the previous one (mud cracks), it should be reemphasized that, while the
mechanisms and principles inherent in these mathematical models may represent part
of the “truth” behind the observed patterns, they certainly do not qualify as “the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Indeed, as discussed at some length in
chapter 1, this is the case to a greater or lesser degree for all mathematical
models. In any field of scientific endeavor, pragmatically speaking, no model can
fully encapsulate all the data
DB - JSTOR
EP - 294
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 254
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.17
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TY - CHAP
TI - Bird Flight
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - In this chapter we discuss some principles relating to flight in general and
bird flight in particular. Some of these principles pertain to the type of
dimensional arguments discussed in chapter 3. The first topic to reencounter is
that of<em>wing loading</em>. The power necessary for sustained flight for birds
and airplanes is proportional to the wing loading, which is the weight of the bird
or airplane divided by the area of the wings. For geometrically similar objects,
weight increases as the cube of the length of the bird (or plane), and wing area as
the square of the length,
DB - JSTOR
EP - 308
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 295
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.18
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TY - CHAP
TI - How Did the Leopard Get Its Spots?
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
AB - (. . . or legs, or tail, or toes; or the feathers, or wings in a bird. . . .)
Before we can even attempt an answer to this question (or these questions), it is
necessary to try to understand something about the phenomenon of diffusion. Denny
and Gaines have done an excellent job explaining the physical and mathematical
principles behind diffusion, and in considerable detail, but since you are not
reading their book at this moment, for completeness I will attempt to explain the
ideas more succinctly but somewhat heuristically here. Diffusion arises because of
random molecular motion; generally
DB - JSTOR
EP - 335
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 309
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.19
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TY - CHAP
TI - APPENDIX
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
DB - JSTOR
EP - 340
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 336
T1 - Fractals: An Appetite Whetter . . .
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.20
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TY - CHAP
TI - BIBLIOGRAPHY
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
DB - JSTOR
EP - 355
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 341
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.21
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TY - CHAP
TI - INDEX
AU - ADAM, JOHN A.
DB - JSTOR
EP - 359
PB - Princeton University Press
PY - 2003
SN - 9780691127965
SP - 356
T2 - Mathematics in Nature
T3 - Modeling Patterns in the Natural World
UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rkcn.22
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