The Logarithmic Spiral

Now all you guys who are like “Yeah man the Fibonacci spiral is awesome” can just take a back seat here, because here we have the coolest of all spirals: the logarithmic spiral. Truth be told just about every time you’ve heard someone talk about the Fibonacci (or more accurately known Golden Spiral) they’ve been talking about this guy and just not realized it. The logarithmic spiral is given by the equation r=ae^(bθ) where r is the radius, a & b are positive constants and θ is the angle around the origin.

The logarithmic spiral also pops up quite often in nature, being the mathematical pattern behind such things as nautilus shells, Romanesco broccoli, spiral galaxies, the Mandelbrot set, storms, ferns and even sea horses.