Romanesco

Today, we have again, another different Math Art. The picture above is a romanesco. Sometimes its also mistakenly called a caulliflower or a broccoli, but it’s a different plant (though they are all three of the same species). There has to be a reason why I posted a picture of a vegetable instead of some artsy math image right?

That’s because sometimes in nature, you get the most wonderful mathematical images ever. I think it is common knowledge that broccolis are self-similar fractals - that the ‘little tree’ contains more ‘little trees’, which contains even more ‘little trees’, but what’s so cool and beautiful about the romanesco is that in it, is also contains a fibonacci spiral (otherwise known as a equiangular spiral, or a Bernoulli spiral). In short, it’s a 4-in-one package of mathematical art! - Self similarity, fractals, the fibonacci sequence and spirals. (note: There are non-self-simiar fractals)

From the side profile picture of the romanesco above, it’s easy to see that it’s a spiral. And each of the romanesco is made of individual florets, which are similar to the larger stalk. And within these florets are more florets of similar stalks.

The picture above was taken by the multi-talented Haalo. She’s a mathematician (though she said she’s doing more statistics and economics than pure math), and a wonderful cook, as she blogs consistently at the Cook (Almost) Anything Once blog. I liked the picture above because of the composition, and the imagery. She has many other romanesco pictures, but I chose this because the color, and the lighting et al. just is perfect. It truly brings out the spiral imagery of the romanesco, and it’s not difficult to see its self-similar nature.

And of course, the rest of her romanesco pictures are in frittatas, so, it’s become food, and not art.

There you go - nature does indeed have some of the most breathtaking math arts.