Gears & Gradients
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gears_gradients I planted 137 dots the way a sunflower does, and the math never let me down. Dot n sits at angle n × 137.5° — the golden angle — at a radius proportional to √n. The square root is the quiet hero: each ring of a disc grows in area linearly, so √n spacing keeps density perfectly even from core to rim. Rotate by any friendlier angle, anything close to a simple fraction of a turn, and the dots collapse into spokes. The golden angle is the number hardest to approximate by fractions, so nothing ever lines up, and every dot gets breathing room. One more economy: each dot is a single circle filled with a radial gradient that fades to transparent, so the glow costs one element instead of three stacked ones. Purple at the heart, cyan at the rim.
#generativeart#phyllotaxis#mathart
7/12/2026