This boy, Aidan Dwyer, is inspiring. I believe that great things can be accomplished if we adults would just step back and view the world as a child once and a while. Of course, it would help even more if we could view the world as a genius child, like Aidan is.
I have oftentimes looked at trees and thought about how each leaf was like a solar panel contributing to the powering of the whole tree. A tree which grows and sustains itself with no man's assistance; a tree which can withstand tempests and floods and fires; a tree, sown as a seed into the crevice of a rock, which grows and grows and, given enough time, could bring down an entire mountain! However, I at no point, neither as a child nor an adult with an engineering degree, looked at the leaf configuration of a tree and thought, "Hey, that's Fibonacci!" But, Aidan sure did. And he took the concept and ran with it. I mean, he designed his own tools, for goodness sake!
First he determined the ratios representing the spiral pattern of the leaves and branches on an oak tree, using a cylindrical double-protractor tool of his own design. Then he copied the pattern using a computer program, and built an oak tree-shaped solar array out of PVC pipe.
Absolutely brilliant.
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