Concept
Growth parameter — where it appears
2 essays name this object, across 2 fields. What follows is each of them, and the objects they name alongside it.
A ring cannot make a spiral
The peaks on a Turing ring do not all appear at once — there is a first and a second. But which two lead is decided by the starting disorder, so the angle between them comes out at 177°, then 47°, then 109°, then 151°. A divergence angle is a relationship that repeats, and this one does not.
The bifurcation diagram
Sweep the one parameter of the rule and the settled angle traces a diagram — a broad golden branch, a transition, and a two-whorl regime at exactly half a turn. The famous constant is one branch of it, which is a more useful thing to know than the constant.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
BifurcationDivergence angleRateBranchCylinderDispersion relationDistichousEmergence orderFibonacciInitial conditionMeristemPrimordium