Life Through a Mathematician's Eyes

One of the first things we wanted to see in Edinburgh was the Edinburgh Butterfly & Insect World. Butterflies are some of my favorite creatures ever. Beside their incredible beauty, we found them extremely interesting (especially the process caterpillar – pupa – adult), but they also hide a creative and very common mathematical property: symmetry. 

While visiting Edinburgh Butterfly & Insect World we have spent some time watching the ants they have there. Looking at their organized trails and how they were carrying things around, we were sure there was some mathematics in there. So, when we came home afterwards we didsome research on this and we found great examples of mathematics we can learn from ants. 

Continuing the series of posts inspired by nature. This time we will be talking about my discoveries at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. Therefore, there is no surprise that we will be talking about fractals.

Spirals are everywhere around us; understanding them helps us discover more about nature and its structures. Therefore, we decided to write more about some interesting spirals that can be found in nature.

How much math does a bee know? Well, you will be surprised to find out that they surely know a little more geometry. After years and years of evolution they decided to chose hexagons for their honeycombs. It seems that it is not a random decision.