Tonight I had to go back and update my Fibonacci Life post from last year. That post has consistently been the most frequently viewed post on this blog representing 13% of all traffic over the past month and I'd like to keep it accurate. Much to my surprise, I read that the Nautilus is actually not a Fibonacci spiral. This is something that you read about in books and all over the internet but you'd never check for yourself. Its possible that this is because Nautiluses are rare and you don't often find these shells on the beach, but I'm more inclined to think that its because we believe pretty much everything we read in scientific contexts. If its in the physics textbook, its probably true. If its in the math textbook, good luck proving it wrong. I don't want to steal the thunder on this from Akkana, the blogger who brought this to my attention, so read her post if you want more color on this. For more details on the Nautilus spiral read here. The point I'd like to make is that scientific/math media should be held to a much higher standard than other types of information. In particular, before anything goes in a textbook, especially those aimed at yonger folks, the authors must be 100.0% without a doubt certain of everything they publish. Maybe this much is obvious, but I am certain I heard about the Nautilus in some math book as a kid and its just plain wrong. I assumed nautilus=Fibonacci was truth and kept it with me ever since. I care about this because turns out that there is something being printed in physics text books today that I take great issue with, the Big Bang. I'm gonna do a post sometime this week providing justification and details about my thoughts on this matter, but just to tease you a bit: the Big Bang is bogus too.
Showing posts with label Don't Believe Evertyhing You Read. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don't Believe Evertyhing You Read. Show all posts
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The Nautilus is Not a Fibonacci Spiral!?
Tonight I had to go back and update my Fibonacci Life post from last year. That post has consistently been the most frequently viewed post on this blog representing 13% of all traffic over the past month and I'd like to keep it accurate. Much to my surprise, I read that the Nautilus is actually not a Fibonacci spiral. This is something that you read about in books and all over the internet but you'd never check for yourself. Its possible that this is because Nautiluses are rare and you don't often find these shells on the beach, but I'm more inclined to think that its because we believe pretty much everything we read in scientific contexts. If its in the physics textbook, its probably true. If its in the math textbook, good luck proving it wrong. I don't want to steal the thunder on this from Akkana, the blogger who brought this to my attention, so read her post if you want more color on this. For more details on the Nautilus spiral read here. The point I'd like to make is that scientific/math media should be held to a much higher standard than other types of information. In particular, before anything goes in a textbook, especially those aimed at yonger folks, the authors must be 100.0% without a doubt certain of everything they publish. Maybe this much is obvious, but I am certain I heard about the Nautilus in some math book as a kid and its just plain wrong. I assumed nautilus=Fibonacci was truth and kept it with me ever since. I care about this because turns out that there is something being printed in physics text books today that I take great issue with, the Big Bang. I'm gonna do a post sometime this week providing justification and details about my thoughts on this matter, but just to tease you a bit: the Big Bang is bogus too.
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