Romanesco Broccoli
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Romanesco Broccoli
- This is the Romanesco Broccoli, which is a natural vegetable that grows in accordance to the Fibonacci Sequence, is a fractal, and is three dimensional.
Contents
Basic Description
Although the broccoli looks like it grows in accordance to the Fibonacci sequence, does it really? By making ratios between the distances of the vertices of each iteration of the fractals, and then making ratios between the numbers in the fibonacci sequence, then plotting them, the growth of the broccoli in accordance to the sequence was proved.
A More Mathematical Explanation
Proof that the Romanesco Broccoli is a natural example of the Fibonacci sequence:
It looks as if the [...]Proof that the Romanesco Broccoli is a natural example of the Fibonacci sequence:
It looks as if the Romanesco Broccoli is a natural example of the Fibonacci sequence. However appearances can deceive. A mathematical and scientific proof does not. The main image of the broccoli was taken and points were placed on each iteration of the fractal points. Then the points were conncted to form line segments.
The line segments were measured from largest to smallest. Ratios were made between the largest line segment and the next largest until the last line segment was reached.The image used for this was a side view of the broccoli.
The process was repeated with an image of the broccoli from above.
For the first few numbers of the Fibonacci Sequence, ratios were created from the largest to the smallest numbers. This was to ensure a point of comparison to the line segments on the broccoli. Then a chart was created with all these ratios.
The chart was used to create a line graph with the ratios. Notably, the line made by the ratios of the Fibonacci sequence was very similar to the line made by the third set of broccoli ratios. They both followed the same upward growth, but they had different intercepts, which does not change the slopes of the lines. The Fibonacci Sequence has a higher bound of growth, limited at 2, while the broccoli was limited at 1.
For a more clear comparison between the broccoli and the Fibonacci Sequence, only the Fibonacci line and the line from the third set of broccoli ratios were kept. A trend line was created for both with their equations displayed. The y intercepts for the equations were different, however the slopes were nearly the same. There was only a 0.0116 difference between them.
The following is the graph and proof the Romanesco Broccoli grows in accordance to the Fibonacci Sequence:
Why It's Interesting
This is interesting because it is proof that the Fibonacci sequence occurs naturally, and the numbers are something derived from nature. Nature has math in it.
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