GNED 03 Mathematics in Our World

Mathematics in our
World
Mathematics is the study of the relationships among
numbers, quantities and shapes.
➢ Arithmetic
➢ Algebra
➢ Trigonometry
➢ Geometry
➢ Statistics
➢ Calculus
❖Mathematics nurtures human characteristics
like power of creativity, reasoning, critical
thinking spatial thinking and others.
❖Mathematics is the universal way to make

sense of the world and to communicate
understanding of concepts and rules using
mathematical symbols, signs, proofs, language
and conventions.
❖ Mathematics helps organize patterns and
regularities in the world.
❖Mathematics helps predict behavior of nature

and phenomena in the world.
❖Mathematics, being a science of patterns,

helps students to utilize recognize, and
generalize patterns that exist in numbers, in
shapes, and in the world around them.
Patterns and Numbers in Nature and the
World
Patterns in nature are visible regularities found
in the natural world. These patterns persist in
different contexts and can be modelled
mathematically . Natural patterns may consist of
spirals, symmetries, mosaic, stripes, spots, etc.
Study reveals that these patterns have many
similarities and resemblances.
Joseph Plateau
(Belgian physicist) –
examined the soap
films , leading him
to formulate the
concept of a
minimal surface.
Ernst Haeckel
(German biologist
and artist) –
painted hundreds
of marine
organisms to
emphasize their
symmetry.
❖D’Arcy Thompson (Scottish biologist) –
pioneered the study of growth patterns in both
plants and animals, showing that simple
equations could explain spiral growth.
❖Alan Turing (British Mathematician) –

predicted mechanisms of morphogenesis
which give rise to patterns of spots and stripes.
❖Aristid Lindenmayer (Hungarian biologist) and
Benoît Mandelbrot (French American
mathematician) – showed how the
mathematics of fractals could create plant
growth patterns.
W. Gary Smith adopts eight patterns in his
landscape work, namely: scattered,
fractured, mosaic, naturalistic drift,
serpentine, spiral, radial and dendritic.
These patterns occur in plants, animals,
rocks formations, river flow, stars or in
human creations.
Numbers in Nature
❖ bird’s two wings
❖ clover’s three leaflets
❖ deer’s four hooves
❖ buttercup’s five petals
❖ insect’s six legs
❖ rainbow’s seven colors
❖ octopus’ eight arms
Fibonacci Sequence
Leonardo Pisano Bigollo lived
between 1170 and 1250 in Italy.
His Nickname “Fibonacci” roughly
means “Son of Bonacci”.
Fibonacci day is November 23, as
it has the digits “1, 1, 2, 3” which
is part of the sequence, which he
developed.
Fibonacci Sequence
This Fibonacci
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34,
sequence has
fascinated 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610,
mathematicians,
artists, designers, 987, 1 597, 2 584, 4 181,
and scientists for
centuries. 6 765, 10 946, …
The ratio of any two successive Fibonacci
Numbers is very close to the Golden Ratio,
referred to and represented as phi (φ) which is
approximately equal to 1.618034… . The bigger
the pair of Fibonacci numbers considered, the
closer is the approximation.
A golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral whose
growth factor is the golden ratio.
Fibonacci Spiral
Fibonacci Flowers
Flowers are easily considered as things of beauty. Different flowers
have different numbers of petals. Examples are:
❖three-petal lily and iris;
❖five-petal wild rose, larkspur, buttercup, and columbine;
❖eight-petal delphiniums;
❖thirteen-petal ragwort, corn marigold, and cineraria;
❖21-petal aster, chicory, and black-eyed susan;
❖34-petal pytethrum, and plantain.
Fibonacci Flowers
Patterns and Regularities in the World as
Organized in Mathematics
Patterns, relationships, and functions constitute a
unifying theme of mathematics. So many of the
beautiful phenomena observed in nature can be
described in mathematical terms. Scientific and
mathematical principles undergird these spectacular
patterns as in rainbows, water waves, cloud
formations, tree branching patterns, mud-crack
patterns, butterfly markings, leopard spots and tiger
stripes.
Spectacular Patterns
The world consists of orders (the regular cycles
of days and nights, the recurrence of seasons
alternate sunrise and sunset, etc.) and
symmetry (the fractal pattern in a Romanesco
broccoli, spiral nautilus shell, bilateral peacock’s
tail, circular spider webs, etc.) from which
similarity, predictability and regularity in nature
and the world consequently exist.
Symmetrical
Patterns
The motion of a pendulum, the reflection in a
plane mirror, the motion of a falling object and
the action-reaction pair of forces are all guided
and organized by mathematics. They exhibit
regularities and symmetry in motion and
behavior according to mathematical laws.
Nature and Occurrences in the World as
Controlled by Mathematics for Human Ends
❖ Health and medicine
❖ Political science
❖ Economics
Applications of Mathematics in the
World
❖ Farming and gardening
❖ Planning a market list and grocery shopping
❖ Arrangement of furniture, wall decorations and
frames, etc.
❖ Long and short travels
❖ Construction of buildings
ACTIVITY #1. Answer the following questions in
three to five sentences only. (5 points each)
1. What new ideas about mathematics did
you learn?
2. What is it about mathematics that might
have changed your thought about it?
3. How useful is mathematics to humankind?

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Mathematics in our

❖Mathematics is the universal way to make

❖Mathematics helps predict behavior of nature

❖Mathematics, being a science of patterns,

❖Alan Turing (British Mathematician) –

❖ Health and medicine

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