The Golden Spiral in Hurricanes: Does It Predict Severity?

Overview

Objectives/Goals I wondered if the Golden/Fibonacci Spiral, which is present in many parts of nature, was present in hurricanes and, if so, would it predict the severity of a hurricane. My hypothesis was if a Golden/Fibonacci Spiral is present in a hurricane the hurricane will be more severe compared to a hurricane with a tighter or looser spiral. Methods/Materials I researched hurricanes, including a personal expert interview. Then I collected data about hurricanes from 2002 to 2012, all in September, the most popular hurricane month. I used satellite images of each hurricane and with geometric measurements I calculated how much tighter or looser the spiral in the hurricane was compared to the Golden/Fibonacci Spiral. After this, I evaluated whether there was a correlation between my data points of each hurricane the percent variance from a Golden/Fibonacci Spiral. Results I determined there is no correlation (0.06171) between amount of rainfall and a hurricane#s likeness to a Golden/Fibonacci Spiral, a slightly higher, but not significant correlation (0.328564) between # of days as a hurricane and a hurricane#s variation to a Golden Spiral. The speed of wind (0.513176) and barometric pressure (-0.47057) were the most correlated to a hurricane#s likeness to a Golden/Fibonacci Spiral, although still not a high correlation. I confirmed that the variance from the Golden Spiral became greater as the distance of the spiral from the eye of the hurricane became greater. Conclusions/Discussion The data did not support my hypothesis that the presence of the Golden/Fibonacci Spiral would predict a more severe hurricane than a hurricane with a tighter or looser spiral. The data shows the more severe a hurricane is, defined as greater wind speed and lower barometric pressure, the less like a Golden Spiral it is. The visual process with which I defined the spirals created some bias within my results. If I did this project again, I would broaden my data to evaluate more hurricanes, keep the time of the satellite image constant, and investigate use of computer imaging to define the spirals.

Awards (1)

• Second Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2013 Earth & Planetary Sciences · Entry J0804

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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