Mathematics in Sunflowers
Shubha Bala, associate producer
This week’s show with astrophysicist Mario Livio explores, amongst other things, how math is implicated in the nature of the world. The Nobel physicist and mathematician Eugene Wigner, who wrote “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Science,” argued that math is so successful in predicting events in physics that it could not be a coincidence. Even on our previous show, “Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God,” the astronomers pointed out the complexity in declaring whether math is discovered or invented.
While producing these interviews, I happened upon the video above. The visualization helped me by filling in some of the specific examples in nature that mathematicians can easily visualize on a daily basis. It shows how three mathematical concepts, including the golden ratio, translate into simple objects in nature.
What I really love is the about page, which deconstructs how the Fibonacci series and golden ratio translate into the spiral of a shell, and the spirals within a sunflower. When listening to Livio, what examples of math explaining the cosmos came to mind for you?
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