J.X. Mason October 22, 2024
Geometric patterns are often found in nature and science. Why is this so? For many reasons:
- If you take a string of any given length, you can enclose more area by forming it into a circle than you can by forming it into any other shape – triangle, square, octagon, rectangle, or whatever. This makes the circle an efficient enclosure used by living organisms.
- The grid or “stacked boxes” pattern is everywhere. The cells of all living things are assembled in this pattern, because it provides the optimum way for each cell to be individual (with its own enclosing walls) and yet in communication with cooperative neighboring cells.
- The branching pattern and the network pattern are also ubiquitous (tree branches, roads, blood vessels), because they preserve some connection while exploring and covering more distance and space. This greater coverage permits access to light, air, water, and transportation (cars, trucks, blood cells).
- As shown on the Home Page of our ContinuingCreation.org website, the Spiral Pattern is present in everything from galaxies to snail shells. Why? Probably because this pattern can be generated by adding together a simple series of numbers.
- Fractals, where a pattern is repeated over and over on different scales, as seen on a head of broccoli.
Fractal Patterns in Nature
In 1968, Hungarian theoretical biologist Aristid Lindenmayer (1925–1989) developed the
L-system, a formal mathematical grammar which can be used to model plant growth patterns in the style of fractals.
A fractal is a pattern that repeats itself over different size scales. These are also called “self-similar” patterns. For example, the irregular, in-and-out shape of a coastline looks the same from a mile above, from 10 feet above, and (under magnification) from a millimeter above. The ins-and-outs are so numerous, that the true measured length of a coastline is practically infinite.
Fractals are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop. Driven feedback loops, fractals are images of dynamic, recursive systems. A perfect example of a fractal pattern in nature is a floret of broccoli, below:
More Patterns That Repeat in Nature and Science
Science and mathematics can also explain how Nature produces many other patterns, including the following:
- Chains and ladders, such as the strands of DNA found in every living thing.
- Weaves, such as spiders’ webs and birds’ nests.
- Concentric rings, like the growth rings in tree trunks.
- Hexagons, such as the cells in bees’ honeycombs.
- Spots and Stripes on animals – leopards, tigers, zebras.
- Waves, Bubbles, and foam in liquids.
- Tessellations (tiling patterns) on things like dried mud, fish scales, and pineapples.
- Widmanstatten Patterns can be seen in the cross-sections of meteorites.
Widmanstatten Pattern in the cross-section of a meteorite