Contacts: Jennifer Mott, Western Washington University College of Sciences and Technology, (360) 650-2454.
BELLINGHAM - Western Washington University Associate Professor of Mathematics Michael Naylor will present "Deciphering Nature's Code" on 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 11, in SMATE 150 as part of the WWU College of Sciences and Technology's "Wizards at Western" lecture series.
DaVinci was on to something -- find out what when Western Washington University Associate Professor of Mathematics Michael Naylor will present "Deciphering Nature's Code" on 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 11, in SMATE 150 as part of the WWU College of Sciences and Technology's "Wizards at Western" lecture series.
All Wizards at Western lectures are free and open to the public.
Leonardo DaVinci was one of many scientists who tried to understand art and beauty using mathematics, especially the mysterious proportion known as the Golden Ratio. Since the beginning of mathematics, this number has been thought to be "the most beautiful" ratio in the world. The Golden Ratio is also connected to Fibonacci numbers - numbers in a sequence such that, following 1 and 1, each is the sum of its two immediate predecessors, such as 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc. - which appear all over nature, such as the number of leaves on a daisy to the placement of seed spirals on sunflowers.
What's so important about this number that it would inspire artists and architects, and why does nature "choose" to use this number?
Join Naylor on an exciting and dizzying mathematics voyage to explore the history of this ratio, play with its fun properties, see where to find it in the garden and produce aisles, and learn the secret behind how the Golden Ratio produces Fibonacci patterns in nature.
For more information, contact Jennifer Mott, Western Washington University College of Sciences and Technology, at (360) 650-2454.
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