Modeling the World

This section of the lecture was particularly interesting to me, but at the same time a little bit confusing. It was one of those things where I perfectly understood the example of how to model a plant based on how the individual sections grow, but when asked to give my own model of something I wouldn't know where to start. The basis of the idea is just the scientific process where you theorize, test, conclude, and repeat. It's kind of like that Thomas Edison quote that goes something like, "I did not fail 10,000 times, I just found 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb." (or something along those lines). Modeling the world is much the same way, it's very much a guess and check sort of approach to science.
I remember in high school learning about the Fibonacci sequence. I actually used it to figure out the probability of the Plinko game in the Price Is Right. I was fascinated by the usefulness of such a universal and simple set of numbers. I also remember learning about another number or ratio called "the Golden Ratio" that, when worked out, equals around 1.618 which then can be applied to a multitude of things in nature, such as the length of a segment of an appendage in comparison to the next. Many Renaissance artists used this ratio in their art because it was aesthetically pleasing just as the Fibonacci sequence is to the ear.