Spiral


In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point.

Helices

Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:
  1. a curve on a plane that winds around a fixed center point at a continuously increasing or decreasing distance from the point.
  2. a three-dimensional curve that turns around an axis at a constant or continuously varying distance while moving parallel to the axis; a helix.
The first definition describes a planar curve, that extends in both of the perpendicular directions within its plane; the groove on one side of a record closely approximates a plane spiral ; note that successive loops differ in diameter. In another example, the "center lines" of the arms of a spiral galaxy trace logarithmic spirals.
The second definition includes two kinds of 3-dimensional relatives of spirals:
  1. a conical or volute spring, and the vortex that is created when water is draining in a sink is often described as a spiral, or as a conical helix.
  2. quite explicitly, definition 2 also includes a cylindrical coil spring and a strand of DNA, both of which are quite helical, so that "helix" is a more useful description than "spiral" for each of them; in general, "spiral" is seldom applied if successive "loops" of a curve have the same diameter.
In the side picture, the black curve at the bottom is an Archimedean spiral, while the green curve is a helix. The curve shown in red is a conic helix.

Two-dimensional

A two-dimensional, or plane, spiral may be described most easily using polar coordinates, where the radius is a monotonic continuous function of angle :
The circle would be regarded as a degenerate case.
In --coordinates the curve has the parametric representation:
Some of the most important sorts of two-dimensional spirals include:
An Archimedean spiral is, for example, generated while coiling a carpet.
A hyperbolic spiral appears as image of a helix with a special central projection. A hyperbolic spiral is some times called reciproke spiral, because it is the image of an Archimedean spiral with an circle-inversion.
The name logarithmic spiral is due to the equation. Approximations of this are found in nature.
Spirals which do not fit into this scheme of the first 5 examples:
A Cornu spiral has two asymptotic points.
The spiral of Theodorus is a polygon.
The Fibonacci Spiral consists of a sequence of circle arcs.
The involute of a circle looks like an Archimedean, but is not: see Involute#Examples.

Geometric properties

The following considerations are dealing with spirals, which can be described by a polar equation, especially for the cases and the logarithmic spiral.
;Polar slope angle
The angle between the spiral tangent and the corresponding polar circle is called angle of the polar slope and the polar slope.
From vector calculus in polar coordinates one gets the formula
Hence the slope of the spiral is
In case of an Archimedean spiral the polar slope is
The logarithmic spiral is a special case, because of constant !
;curvature
The curvature of a curve with polar equation is
For a spiral with one gets
In case of
.

Only for the spiral has an inflection point.
The curvature of a logarithmic spiral is
;Sector area
The area of a sector of a curve with polar equation is
For a spiral with equation one gets
The formula for a logarithmic spiral is
;Arc length
The length of an arc of a curve with polar equation is
For the spiral the length is
Not all these integrals can be solved by a suitable table. In case of a Fermat's spiral the intgral can be expressed by elliptic integrals only.
The arc length of a logarithmic spiral'' is
;Circle inversion
The inversion at the unit circle has in polar coordinates the simple description:.
Function of a spiral is usually strictly monotnic, continuous
and unbounded. For the standard spirals is either a power function or an exponential function. If one chooses for a bounded function the spiral is bounded, too. A suitable bounded function is the arctan function:
;Example 1
Setting and the choice gives a spiral, that starts at the origin and approaches the circle with radius .
;Example 2
For and one gets a spiral, that approaches the origin and approaches the circle with radius .

Three-dimensional

Conical spirals

If in the --plane a spiral with parametric representation
is given, then there can be added a third coordinate, such that the now space curve lies on the cone with equation :
Spirals based on this procedure are called conical spirals.
;Example
Starting with an archimedean spiral one gets the conical spiral

Spherical spirals

If one represents a sphere of radius by:
and sets the linear dependency for the angle coordinates, one gets a spherical spiral with the parametric representation
Spherical spirals were known to Pappus, too.
Remark: a rhumb line is not a spherical spiral in this sense.
A rhumb line is the curve on a sphere traced by a ship with constant bearing. The loxodrome has an infinite number of revolutions, with the separation between them decreasing as the curve approaches either of the poles, unlike an Archimedean spiral which maintains uniform line-spacing regardless of radius.

In nature

The study of spirals in nature has a long history. Christopher Wren observed that many shells form a logarithmic spiral; Jan Swammerdam observed the common mathematical characteristics of a wide range of shells from Helix to Spirula; and Henry Nottidge Moseley described the mathematics of univalve shells. D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson's On Growth and Form gives extensive treatment to these spirals. He describes how shells are formed by rotating a closed curve around a fixed axis: the shape of the curve remains fixed but its size grows in a geometric progression. In some shells, such as Nautilus and ammonites, the generating curve revolves in a plane perpendicular to the axis and the shell will form a planar discoid shape. In others it follows a skew path forming a helico-spiral pattern. Thompson also studied spirals occurring in horns, teeth, claws and plants.
A model for the pattern of florets in the head of a sunflower was proposed by H. Vogel. This has the form
where n is the index number of the floret and c is a constant scaling factor, and is a form of Fermat's spiral. The angle 137.5° is the golden angle which is related to the golden ratio and gives a close packing of florets.
Spirals in plants and animals are frequently described as whorls. This is also the name given to spiral shaped fingerprints.

In the laboratory

When potassium sulfate is heated in water and subjected to swirling in a beaker, the crystals form a multi-arm spiral structure when allowed to settle

As a symbol

A spiral like form has been found in Mezine, Ukraine, as part of a decorative object dated to 10,000 BCE.
, 4300-4000 BCE. Found in Scânteia, Iași, Romania. Collected by the Moldavia National Museum Complex
entrance slab with a spiral figure carved into it was made by the Hohokams, a Native American tribe over 1000 years ago.
The spiral and triple spiral motif is a Neolithic symbol in Europe. The Celtic symbol the triple spiral is in fact a pre-Celtic symbol. It is carved into the rock of a stone lozenge near the main entrance of the prehistoric Newgrange monument in County Meath, Ireland. Newgrange was built around 3200 BCE predating the Celts and the triple spirals were carved at least 2,500 years before the Celts reached Ireland but has long since been incorporated into Celtic culture. The triskelion symbol, consisting of three interlocked spirals or three bent human legs, appears in many early cultures, including Mycenaean vessels, on coinage in Lycia, on staters of Pamphylia and Pisidia, as well as on the heraldic emblem on warriors' shields depicted on Greek pottery.
Spirals can be found throughout pre-Columbian art in Latin and Central America. The more than 1,400 petroglyphs in Las Plazuelas, Guanajuato Mexico, dating 750-1200 AD, predominantly depict spirals, dot figures and scale models. In Colombia monkeys, frog and lizard like figures depicted in petroglyphs or as gold offering figures frequently includes spirals, for example on the palms of hands. In Lower Central America spirals along with circles, wavy lines, crosses and points are universal petroglyphs characters. Spirals can also be found among the Nazca Lines in the coastal desert of Peru, dating from 200 BC to 500 AD. The geoglyphs number in the thousands and depict animals, plants and geometric motifs, including spirals.
Spiral shapes, including the swastika, triskele, etc., have often been interpreted as solar symbols.
Roof tiles dating back to the Tang Dynasty with this symbol have been found west of the ancient city of Chang'an.
Spirals are also a symbol of hypnosis, stemming from the cliché of people and cartoon characters being hypnotized by staring into a spinning spiral. They are also used as a symbol of dizziness, where the eyes of a cartoon character, especially in anime and manga, will turn into spirals to show they are dizzy or dazed. The spiral is also found in structures as small as the double helix of DNA and as large as a galaxy. Because of this frequent natural occurrence, the spiral is the official symbol of the World Pantheist Movement.
The spiral is also a symbol of the dialectic process and Dialectical monism.

In art

The spiral has inspired artists throughout the ages. Among the most famous of spiral-inspired art is Robert Smithson's earthwork, "Spiral Jetty", at the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The spiral theme is also present in David Wood's Spiral Resonance Field at the Balloon Museum in Albuquerque, as well as in the critically acclaimed Nine Inch Nails 1994 concept album The Downward Spiral. The Spiral is also a prominent theme in the anime Gurren Lagann, where it represents a philosophy and way of life. It also central in Mario Merz and Andy Goldsworthy's work. The spiral is the central theme of the horror manga Uzumaki by Junji Ito, where a small coastal town is afflicted by a curse involving spirals. 2012 A Piece of Mind By Wayne A Beale also depicts a large spiral in this book of dreams and images.

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