Modeling Spiral Growth in a GSP Environment

Author(s):

H. Dogan-Dunlap and J. R. Jordan

Abstract

This article introduces a mathematical model of spiral growth in a Geometer’s Sketchpad (GSP) environment. The model makes a graphical display of the behaviors observed in nature among many plants such as pinecones, cauliflowers, and sunflowers. The GSP program can be used in early college mathematics courses to motivate activities on rational and irrational numbers as well as the decimal approximation of irrational numbers.

Technologies used in this article

The basic exposition in this article is accessible with a modern web browser. However, to run the GSP program, you will need The Geometer's Sketchpad software.