(field) trippin’ on fibonacci

Today, I accompanied 300+ middle school students to the Flint Center in Cupertino to see a math play called “Eureka!”.

Not being particularly math-oriented, I had hoped Paul could chaperone in my place (since I prefer the art/history/literature field trips). However, he had to fly to Irvine for the day so I was semi-forced to confront my long-standing aversion to math. But guess what? I was completely wrong about math not being my cup of tea!

Did you know that mathematics is the language of movement? And that many number theories are found and proven in nature? I was really intrigued by the work of Fibonacci (who I only knew from reading The DaVinci Code, sadly). The play brought out facts and details I’d never heard of… did you know Fibonacci numbers 5, 8, and 13 are expressed in the spiral patterns of pineapples, pinecones and flowers? Fascinating stuff!

And who knew that “eureka!” comes from an ancient Greek word meaning “I have found it”. Having found so much beauty in math today I can only say, of course, “Eureka!”

P.S. If you want to learn more about the play, the official website is http://www.chambertheatre.com/ourshows/math and a lot of really interesting math information and exercises may be found at http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibmaths.html#aandb (The Mathematical Magic of the Fibonacci Numbers).