Cicada 17 - Numberphile
Why do cicadas emerge every 17 years - featuring Steve Mould. Steve is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MouldS More links & stuff in full description below ...
==========
STEVE MOULD: I'm talking about an insect called a cicada. They're in the news at the moment in America. They are a small flying insect. And the reason they're in the news at the moment is because they spend a huge amount of their lives underground. And very occasionally, they come out in a big swarm for the three F's-- feeding, fighting, and mating. And in America, this particular cicada, it's called a periodical cicada. And this one comes out every 17 years. The reason I want to talk about it is because it illustrates an interesting way that nature does maths, because if you want to do maths, if you want to solve a problem in mathematics, what you do is you start with all the facts that you already know. You combine those facts together using mathematical logi...
==========
STEVE MOULD: I'm talking about an insect called a cicada. They're in the news at the moment in America. They are a small flying insect. And the reason they're in the news at the moment is because they spend a huge amount of their lives underground. And very occasionally, they come out in a big swarm for the three F's-- feeding, fighting, and mating. And in America, this particular cicada, it's called a periodical cicada. And this one comes out every 17 years. The reason I want to talk about it is because it illustrates an interesting way that nature does maths, because if you want to do maths, if you want to solve a problem in mathematics, what you do is you start with all the facts that you already know. You combine those facts together using mathematical logi...
