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As an example for Julie's students, I've been trying to come up with examples of primes in nature. Unfortunately the only thing I've found is something about how often cicadas come out for food. How drool. Can any of you think of any examples of primes in nature?
I have run into a number of examples of Fibonacci numbers in nature. For the less mathematically inclined, the Fibonacci numbers are a series of numbers where you get the next number as a sum of the previous two (the first two are 1 and 1): 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987...
Examples in nature: -The ratio of a spiral in a seashell -The branching (number of growth points) in some plants -The number of petals on most flowers -The number of seeds on most flower heads -The spirals within pine cones -Leaf arangements on plants -Etc.
My point? Who knows.
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