it’s hard, though, to compete against the level of spectacle our generation receives each day via personal computers and smart phones. i find that many of my students are over-stimulated with gadgets and social networking.

we must come up with ways to one-up, or at least equal, their other sources of stimulation.

I had heard about sunflowers and fibonacci numbers. One day I was taking a walk through a field and came across some sunflowers. I picked one that looked well formed and counted the spirals. Because of the way sunflowers grow, you can either count spirals that go clockwise or counterclockwise. One “direction” (I don’t remember which) will have more spirals than the other.

Anyway, I counted and was completely floored when it was exactly 34 spirals in one direction and exactly 55 spirals in the other direction. Exactly. I was pretty amazed.

Last year I was kicking around whether there was some activity where students could do some debunking of golden ratio myths, but I hadn’t worked out a way to present it. This video might be a good start.

Donald in Mathemagic Land might make more fodder. Here’s a quote from the link above:

As to the Parthenon, all it takes is more than a cursory glance at all the photos on the Web that purport to show the golden ratio in the structure, to see that they do nothing of the kind. (Look carefully at where and how the superimposed rectangle – usually red or yellow – is drawn and ask yourself: why put it exactly there and why make the lines so thick?)

While its beautiful, it should also be factual.

I talked about 24, and the conversation is still ongoing.