Matryoshka Dolls in Math, Art, and Computer Science

Yesterday in class I enjoyed learning about outlining using a top-down approach. I also consider this approach to be useful in essay writing and Google Drive organizing, but after the wedding analogy, I see other ways the strategy can be applied in other areas and another concept that it reminds of, namely Russian nesting dolls.

These can also be known as "Russian (tea) dolls, nesting dolls, and more.

It seems to me that the top down approach makes each subsequent step easier to manage since, if done right, one cannot get ahead of their self; the previous step is necessary to get to the next step and the step after that. This process, as well as the idea that there are several small subsets underneath an umbrella term (e.g., the ceremony, reception, and honeymoon are all parts under the "wedding" umbrella), remind me of these dolls.

Each hollow doll contains another doll within it, which also contains many dolls within itself as well. To me, these dolls seem somewhat Euclidean. The first doll could represent postulate 1 since it is necessary to interact with it to continue with a process. That is just my opinion because, from what I found in my research, these dolls did not originate in order to teach mathematical concepts. They are, however, referenced in order to teach about recursion and fractals in mathematics, both things we have learned about in class. More research on recursion led me to this interesting image below which shows a picture within a picture within a picture... do you see it? 

The final connection between these Russian dolls and this class has to do with computer science. Last year when taking Principles of Computer Science, I got the sense there was something representing a Russian doll when I would (attempt to) construct things like classes or functions. From what I understand, these organizational tools of computer science are groups that hold smaller things inside of them and are themselves a necessary part of a larger program. I had not heard of a comparison between computer science and Russian dolls until I looked it up this morning and found a few websites that do indeed recommend using Russian dolls as an analogy for recursive functions.