fibonacci numbers and pineapples...

[Subbarao Kambhampati <rao@parichaalak.eas.asu.edu>]

Someone asked me what is the connection between fibonacci numbers and
pineapples. 


Here is what I found... In general all of these connections revolve
around the golden mean--which is the limit of the ratio of two
successive fibonacci numbers (it is equal to [1+sqrt(5)]/2)

Pine Cone/Pineapple Station: Provide a variety of pine cones and a
pineapple. Instruct students to find the rows of bracts (pine cone
leaves) on the pine cones and the rows of hexagonal scales on the
pineapple. Count the gradual rows and steep rows of spirals. You can
make the count easier by marking the rows with markers. Write two
numbers together as a ratio. The numbers will reveal the golden ratio.


Rao

ps: next time, I should get a T-Shirt with Latent Semantic Indexing
motif on the back--and see if that improves the osomosis process in
the class ;-)