Hi,

I know little about math so please excuse the ambiguity of this post. I'm looking for the name and information of the phenomenon the describes a spiral that can get smaller and smaller without ending-like a nautilus shell.

I looked through this site and previous posts on the forums, but because I don't know the name of this principal, I was rather limited. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Blake

You are talking of what is known as the logarithmic, or equiangular, spiral. It was discovered by Decartes in 1638. You may want to have a look at the Spira Mirabilis page.

The spiral is mentioned in several place. In paticular, I. Stewart explains in "Life's Other Secrets" why Nautilus' shell pattern resembles that spiral. The book makes a wonderful reading.

>You are talking of what is
>known as the logarithmic, or
>equiangular, spiral.

Alex,

Thank you for your help. Math is a field that I don't understand, but I can appreciate your site on some level.

I have seen this spiral illustrated in squares within squares getting infinitely smaller. Could you point me to this represenation of the spiral? Thanks again. Blake

Have a look into

The Divine Proportion by H. E. Huntley
Dover, 1970

page 66.

This is related to the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci numbers.