ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Logarithmic spiral

Imagine drawing a line that starts from the center of a circle, and then moves outwards while also slowly rotating around the circle. This curved line will gradually get further from the center while also moving further away from the circle's edge. If you kept drawing this line over and over again, it would eventually create a spiral shape.

A logarithmic spiral is a specific type of spiral that has a special mathematical formula to describe its shape. It's called "logarithmic" because its growth follows a logarithmic progression, where each rotation gets slightly larger than the one before it.

If you were to draw a logarithmic spiral on a piece of paper and measure the distance from the center to each point along the line, you would see that the distance between each point increases by a certain factor. That factor is called the "growth factor" or "Golden Ratio," and it's a special number that appears in a lot of natural patterns and shapes.

You can see examples of logarithmic spirals in many places in nature, like the patterns on a seashell or the way pinecones are arranged. It's a beautiful and fascinating shape that helps us understand the underlying math and patterns that exist all around us.
Related topics others have asked about: