Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature

by Sarah C. Campbell, photographs by Richard P. Campbell

Boyds Mills Press, 2010. 32 pgs. Nonfiction.

In this elegantly written, photographed, and formatted volume, Campbell shows children of all ages how patterns in nature reveal the mathematics of creation. The Fibonacci sequence: 1+1 =2; 1+2=3; 2+3=5; 3+5=8, etc., plays out in this volume in numbers of flower petals, spirals in pine cones and in the centers of sunflowers, and the shells of mollusks. Helpful overlays show the numbers of spiral bands, left and right, and a color chart shows how the spiral translates into numbers. Science becomes art and art becomes science in this beautiful, enlightening, and inspirational volume.

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