does nature favor odd or even numbers? Example?

Answer 1

Fascinating question!

I would say even. For the simple reason that much of nature involves the process of *duplication*, which will generally produce more even numbers. I.e. it will never take an even number and produce an odd number, but it will take an odd number and produce an even number ... and any further duplication can only produce more even numbers.

For example, hox genes can take a single structure (like a leg) and double it to produce two copies (a pair of legs) ... but from then on, all the hox gene can do is duplicate these pairs to produce more even numbers (four legs, six legs, eight legs ... all the way to miriapods, which have many legs, but always an even number). A hox gene mutation cannot take an even-legged creature and produce an odd number of legs.

The counterexample of monocot and dicot plants is interesting, but think about it ... among all monocot and dicot plants (flower parts in multiples of 3, 4, or 5):
multiples of three: (3, 6, 9, 12, ... ) half of these are even, half odd
multiples of five: (5, 10, 15, 20, ... ) half of these even, half odd
multiples of four (4, 8, 12, 16, ... ) *all* of them are even ...
So that means that there are more flowers with even numbers than odd.

Or take a process like meiosis, which is *halving* (the opposite of duplicating). So it would seem to take even numbers, like 46 chromosomes in a diploid human cell, and produce the odd number of 23 chromosomes in a haploid gamete. However, not all species have odd-numbered diploid forms ... it is just as likely that the meiotic process will produce even numbers as odd.

Or any process that gains or loses a single copy of a structure ... e.g. something that goes from four toes to five. Such processes (if they occur) are just as likely to go from five toes to six.

In other words, almost all processes in nature either produce odd and even numbers in equal proportions ... or they are *duplicative* which produces even numbers in greater proportions.

So I'll go with even.

Answer 2

I don't think nature has any preference whatsoever. Even and odd numbers are a concept in mathematics, which was invented by humans to help understand the world. Whether or not something is divisible by 2 doesn't have much significance in the natural world. Sure, some of nature's processes may require 2 things, or 3 things, but what about, say, 647 and 648? I don't think anything profound can be learned from investigating the evenness or the oddness of nature, but that's just my opinion.

Answer 3

Nature favors those that go peaceably into the night.

She doesn’t care if you are regular or goofy foot, odd or even, just keep moving forward.

Answer 4

odd. Flower parts on monocots are in 3s while flower parts in dicots are in 4s and 5s (mostly 5s).