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Sunflowers
Roland Earnst
Sunflowers are very common flowers which are not only beautiful
but also good for food. They produce seeds which humans and a variety of birds
and mammals like to eat.
Native Americans first domesticated sunflowers for food
thousands of years ago.
Sunflowers come in many sizes, but the largest ones can reach 12
feet (more than 3.5 meters) tall with a flower head that is a foot (30 cm) or
more in diameter.
The head is not one blossom, but a cluster of hundreds of ray
flowers around the edge and disc flowers in the center. It’s the disc flowers
which produce the seeds.
Sunflowers have a capacity known as phototropism or
heliotropism, which is the ability to rotate their head so that they always
face the sun as it moves across the sky.
In the morning the flowers face east, and at sunset, they face
west. They accomplish this tracking of the Sun by a hydraulic system built into
the stem.
By a complicated process, water accumulates on the shady side of
the stem. As the pressure builds, it forces the head in a steady arc toward the
direction of the light.
Because it is a hydraulic system using fluid, the pressure is
distributed uniformly on the back surface of the head, so it does no damage to
the plant while providing enough force to move a large surface in a 180-degree
arc.
We use hydraulic systems in many mechanical devices such as
cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, elevators, and earth-moving equipment.
Engineers carefully design these systems for them to work.
Intelligence is needed to design a system that will function
with great force without damaging the object being steered or stopped.
Intelligent engineering went into the design of the sunflower to
enable it to use a complex system to move its large and heavy head toward the
source of the energy that makes it work.
The more we learn about sunflowers, the more we see the wisdom
and planning of the Designer.
The
human mind can only begin to know the Mind of God as we study His Word and His
World. Job 12:7-10 – Romans 1:20
Sci-Tru.com is Science Truth
without Fear of Design. This site is an outreach of DOES GOD EXIST? For
years we have featured “Dandy Designs” showing evidence of design in the
universe and in the living things on planet Earth. Design means to plan and
carry out a project in an artistic or skillful way. Design demands a Designer.
It is our mission to step back and look at those artistic and skillful projects
and admire the excellent work of the First-Rate Designer of the Universe. That
is the purpose of this Sci-Tru website.
Now,
about us. DOES GOD EXIST? was started by John N. Clayton in 1968 with the
purpose to show that Science and Faith are friends–not enemies. John was
an atheist who became a Christian through his study of science and the Bible
and spent his career as a public high school science teacher. He has traveled
around the country and around the world to share the message of faith in the
God of creation. Roland Earnst, Karl Marcussen, and Linda Glover work with him
in this ministry from locations in Niles and Buchanan, Michigan, and South
Bend, Indiana. We publish a quarterly magazine as well as many books and
pamphlets.
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