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Life Sciences Category Suitable for SciFest@School Society of Irish Foresters Award 42. The Maths of Pine Cones The main function of a pine cone is to keep a pine tree’s seeds safe. The cones can close their scales, or bracts, to protect the seeds from wind, low temperatures and even animals that might try to eat them. They open the bracts to release the seeds when it is warm, and conditions are suitable for germination. If you look very carefully at the arrangement of the bracts in a pine cone you will notice that they circle the pine cone in spirals. Did you know that the number of spirals found on a pine cone is almost always a Fibonacci number? You might like to: • Find out more about Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio • Investigate the relationship between Fibonacci numbers and the bracts on pine cones Further links: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/fun_facts_about_pine_coneshttps://www.cfireland.ie/ https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~delcour2/LessonPlanSunflowerWorksheets.pdf https://awkwardbotany.com/2019/12/25/pine-cones-and-the-fibonacci-sequence/ https://phys.org/news/2013-02-nature-pattern-fibonacci.html https://plus.maths.org/content/life-and-numbers-fibonacci
43. To Investigate Dispersal in Trees Possessing Winged Fruits, e.g. Sycamore and Ash Seed dispersal is the mechanism by which a plant ensures that its seeds are scattered as far away from the parent plant as possible so that the seeds can colonise new territory. One of the ways plants disperse their seeds is by wind. Some trees produce seeds embedded in papery wings of varying structures to provide aerodynamic lift. Sycamore trees have distinctive helicopter seeds that fly on the wind. They twirl, float and spin through the air, crossing fields and mountains, hopefully landing somewhere where conditions are favourable for survival.
You might like to: • Study seed dispersal in trees such as the ash and sycamore (Hint: Take 100 seeds. Paint them red. Release them from a height in various strengths of wind which you can measure with an anemometer.) • Collect sycamore seeds and study the factors that affect germination of the seeds by planting them in early February • Investigate the distribution of seeds around a tree • Seeds of some trees such as oak and horse chestnut have no special features that assist their dispersal by wind. Investigate if wind affects the direction in which these seeds are distributed or if they are just distributed evenly around the tree. Further links: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=675 https://forest.jrc.ec.europa.eu/media/atlas/Acer_pseudoplatanus.pdf
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