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9
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Fig 36
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Fig 36 shows papaver somniferum, a poppy that was very popular in Victorian gardens for its luscious colors, textures, and smell. This has resulted in a widespread wild population.
In Fibonacciland so much attention is paid to the seedheads of sunflowers and the efficiency of their packing that other methods often go unremarked upon. How about, for instance, making the seeds extremely small (and very beautiful under a microscope), making a very large number of them, and letting them rattle around in a secure bag. It works for poppies. |
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Fig 37
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| This poppy is so different from the sunflower, and so successful, that it is something of a surprise, looking from above (Fig 37), at the 13 segments which make up the bag, to see that their divergence angle is so close to 137.5°. Different strokes... |
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Fig 38
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| In 1665 Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he had stayed up until the early hours reading Robert Hookes newly published and very successful Micrographia. Using early microscopes required practice. Recording and engraving what you saw required another level of talent altogether, and Hookes work (Christopher Wren lent a hand from time to time), which included the poppy seeds shown in Fig 38, was widely admired. |
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| So much for the seeds...Now the spirals... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fig 39 shows a parabolic spiral, also called a Fermat spiral after the French mathematician who studied it in in 1636 when he was 25. It has been suggested that this spiral provides a better model of seedheads than the equiangular spiral because successive whorls enclose equal increments of area. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fig 39
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Fig 40
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| Fig 40 shows a computer model of a seedhead based on the Fermat spiral. It seems to capture the complication of the sunflower in Fig 41 quit well. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fig 41
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Fig 42
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Fig 43
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| Fig 42 has the dots of Fig 40 in 3 colors plus one black line and looks less complicated. | Fig 43 has the same dots in 5 colors on a black background and looks slightly simpler still. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As for comparison with the daisy seedheads on page 4... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||