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nydus/On Growth and FormPublic
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CHAPTER XI THE LOGARITHMIC SPIRAL

of gravity describe an equiangular spiral in space, about a fixed axis (namely the axis of the shell), while at the same time the generating curve grows, with each angular increment of rotation, in such a way as to preserve the symmetry of the entire figure, with or without a simultaneous movement of translation along the axis.

A technical illustration of a spiraling mollusk shell, showing the internal structure and curvature of the chambers.

It is plain that the entire resulting shell may now be looked upon in either of two ways. It is, on the one hand, an ensemble of similar closed curves spirally arranged in space, gradually increasing in dimensions, in proportion to the increase of their vectorial angle from the pole. In other words, we can imagine our shell cut up into a system of rings, following one another in continuous spiral succession from that terminal and largest one, which constitutes the lip of the orifice of the shell. Or, on the other hand, we may figure to ourselves the whole

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