THE GOLDEN SPIRAL

Nikita Vipul
Nov 4 · 3 min read

There have been times when I was absolutely appalled by the vastness of mathematics. At other times, I could only gape in wonder at the very simplicity of the subject. No matter how bright a student we were, we’ve all been in Swami’s (from Malgudi Days) shoes when confronted with a mathematical problem - trying hard to steady our boats amidst the turbulence of decimal, trigonometry and calculus. And most of us have hated our dads for spoiling our dreamy Sundays with his maths workout when all we wanted to do was chase those bushy squirrels across the garden!

Then one fine day, happened the Fibonacci Sequence, giving birth to the Golden Ratio. Starting with a rod of unit length

and dividing it into two sections of respective lengths a and b where a>b, we get —

Next we see that—

in our Fibonacci sequence, the ratio of one number to its immediate predecessor approaches Phi as a limiting value ~ 1.61, which is The Golden Ratio - Nature’s allegory of perfection.

If you still have the guts to keep up with me, you may find yourself drawing a beautiful spiral out of these numbers. Something that will look like —

the spiral that explains the logarithmic growth patterns of Molluscan shells, seeds, phyllotaxy and inflorescence in nature. Voila! So, mathematics and biology happen to converge at a point that can take us round and round across the Milky Way Galaxy!

Similarly, in our lungs also, it is a established fact that the two bronchi are asymmetrical and branch into an irregular pattern. However, it has been revealed that each bronchus branches into two unequal bronchioles and the ratio of these two approaches the Golden Ratio. Simply put, we breathe in small discreet steps. And therefore, biologically variable ventilators could be the step ahead in the domain of mechanical ventilation. Although the idea is still in its infancy, such ventilators correspond to the natural branching found within the patient’s lungs, making use of the Golden Ratio. This could open up smaller bronchioles, improving oxygenation, unlike the conventional ventilation which is a binary process, leading to the collapse of smaller airways over a period of time.

So the next time you find yourself getting caught in a spiral, just breathe in, breathe out and let nature take its course!

    Nikita Vipul

    Written by

    Ink with a Midas(z) touch

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