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February 12, 2017

There’s more maths in slugs and corals than we can think of.

Sea slugs do maths, electrons do maths, minerals do maths. Rainbows do an incredible mathematical performance when you take into account the primary and secondary bows, the dark band between them, and the red and green arcs of light under the primary bow. Next time you see a good rainbow, stop and take a look at the space around it, there’s so much going on; classical geometric optics doesn’t begin to capture its complexity. A stunning piece of mathematical performance is enacted by a peregrine falcon as it hurtles towards its prey; with its head held straight so it can fix one eye steadily on the quarry at a constant angle of 40 degrees, it swoops down at 200 mph in a perfect logarithmic spiral. Leonhard Euler’s 18th-century formula, with its unique mathematical properties, is enacted here by a bird. | Aeon Essays

Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 12, 2017 11:10 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

No.

Nature produces art out of necessity; its perfection is explained later by those with a need to explain.

Music operates from and on the heart and mind and emotions of man. Mathematicians noticed after the fact that rules could be deduced therefrom.

Posted by: Rob De Witt at February 12, 2017 3:47 PM

Well said, RDW.
And what is it in the beholder that interprets the seen or heard as natural beauty? And what do those nonhuman 'things' think of us -- bizarre forms from a strange world of perceptions and values?

Posted by: Howard Nelson at February 12, 2017 5:02 PM

Slugs don't do math. Rainbows don't do math. Peregrine falcons don't do math. Humans only use math to describe their behaviors.

And, no human ever created math. Like all the other laws that govern nature, math is just one phenomenon available to describe these laws.

Math is a little peek under the hood of God's creative genius.

Incidentally, the human ability to know how God created math is just about as ridiculous as a slugs ability to do math.

Posted by: edaddy at February 13, 2017 10:31 AM

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