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I.Mathematical patterns in plants:

PHYLLOTAXIS & FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

Spirals are very common in seed arrangements in flowers, leaves on stems, and
animals like molluscs (their shells). Plant spirals can be seen in sunflowers,
phyllotaxis. Some plants like pine cones can even have multiple spirals going
both clockwise and anticlockwise. These can be mathematically generated using
Fibonacci numbers (where the subsequent number is the sum of the last two
numbers). A very common example is the number of flower petals. Many
flowers have just 3 petals. If not 3, they favor numbers like 5,8,13, and 21. These
numbers are actually in the Fibonacci sequence. We can easily find Fibonacci
numbers in the spiral formed by individual flowers in their seed arrangements
like sunflowers, daisies, cauliflowers and broccoli.
SYMMETRY

Symmetry is extensively prevalent in nature. Many flowers, leaves, and animals like starfish and sea
anemones have radial symmetry. Animals that move in particular directions generally have mirror or
bilateral symmetry. Another very beautiful natural creation, the snowflake, surprises us with
extremely complex yet very closely symmetric and unique patterns. Snowflakes generally have six-fold
symmetry.

Butterflies and moths have exquisite, detailed patterns on their wings. Their wings are accurately
identical.
II. Mathematical Patterns in animals :
ALAN TURING’S PATTERN

Many animals have a variety of patterns, such as the speckled pattern on the feathers of guinea hens,
the spots on a leopard, and the stripes of a zebra. Repeated uniform patterns are called tessellations,
where the repeated shape is adjacent to the next, as shown in the snake image below. Patterns in
nature in the form of spots and stripes result from a chemical phenomenon called the reaction-
diffusion effect. As discussed earlier, during an organism’s development, chemicals called inhibitors
and activators interact to produce the resulting pattern. Some animal patterns in nature are called the
Voronoi pattern, such as the pattern on a giraffe. A Voronoi pattern is a mathematical configuration
based on points and proximal locations to adjacent cells, as shown in the image below. This type of
pattern is a type of tessellation.
III. Mathematical patterns in trees:

All the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the
trunk.

A more general version states that when a parent branch splits into two or more child branches, the
surface areas of the child branches add up to that of the parent branch. An equivalent formulation is
that if a parent branch splits into two child branches, then the cross-sectional diameters of the parent
and the two child branches form a right-angled triangle. One explanation is that this allows trees to
better withstand high winds. Simulations of biomechanical models agree with the rule.

Fractals are infinitely self-similar, iterated mathematical constructs having fractal dimension. Infinite
iteration is not possible in nature so all ‘fractal’ patterns are only approximate. For example, the leaves
of ferns and umbellifers (Apiaceae) are only self-similar (pinnate) to 2, 3 or 4 levels. Fern-like growth
patterns occur in plants and in animals including bryozoa, corals, hydrozoa like the air fern, Sertularia
argentea, and in non-living things, notably electrical discharges. Lindenmayer system fractals can
model different patterns of tree growth by varying a small number of parameters including branching
angle, distance between nodes or branch points (internode length), and number of branches per
branch point.
IV. Mathematical patterns in foams:

A foam is a mass of bubbles; foams of different materials occur in nature. Foams composed of soap
films obey Plateau’s laws, which require three soap films to meet at each edge at 120° and four soap
edges to meet at each vertex at the tetrahedral angle of about 109.5°. Plateau’s laws further require
films to be smooth and continuous, and to have a constant average curvature at every point. For
example, a film may remain nearly flat on average by being curved up in one direction (say, left to
right) while being curved downwards in another direction (say, front to back). Structures with minimal
surfaces can be used as tents.
V. Mathematical patterns in waves

Waves are disturbances that carry energy as they move. Mechanical waves propagate through a
medium – air or water, making it oscillate as they pass by. Wind waves are sea surface waves that
create the characteristic chaotic pattern of any large body of water, though their statistical behaviour
can be predicted with wind wave models. As waves in water or wind pass over sand, they create
patterns of ripples. When winds blow over large bodies of sand, they create dunes, sometimes in
extensive dune fields as in the Taklamakan desert. Dunes may form a range of patterns including
crescents, very long straight lines, stars, domes, parabolas, and longitudinal or seif (‘sword’) shapes.
VI.Mathematical Patterns in objects:

One of the most enchanting patterns is the fractal, a term created By Benoit B. Mandelbrot. The
hallmark of a fractal is its selfsimilarity, a property where each part of the pattern resembles the
Whole, albeit on a smaller scale. A classic example is the Sierpinski Triangle, a geometric wonder that,
when examined closely, reveals An infinite recursion of triangles within triangles.

The mathematical modeling of fractals involves recursive Equations. Take the Sierpinski triangle as an
example: a large Triangle is composed of three smaller triangles, each half the size Of the previous
one. This pattern repeats ad infinitum. Such selfsimilarity leads to the notion of fractional dimensions.
A line Segment is one-dimensional, but a fractal can have a dimension Like 1.2619 or 1.585,
challenging our conventional understanding of dimensions.