Mathematics in the Modern World

Lesson 1 – Mathematics in Nature

Prepared by: SAS Mathematics Group
Objectives:
• At the end of the lesson, you should be able to
perform the following tasks:
1. Identify patterns in nature and regularities in the
world
2. Give the characteristics and nature of
mathematics.
3. Articulate the importance of mathematics in
one’s life.
4. Express appreciation for mathematics as a
human endeavor.
Motivation
• Watch the video and answer the following
questions afterwards.
Introduction
•Nothing can beat the beauty of nature.
Finding mathematics in nature at a first
glance may seem less obvious.
However, if one does take time to
examine nature, then one can describe
its beauty mathematically.
Patterns in Nature and the Regularities in the World

•Patterns and counting are correlative.

Counting happens when there is a
pattern. When there is counting, there is
logic.
•Consequently, a pattern in nature goes
with logic or logical setup.
Patterns in Nature and the Regularities in the World

•Pattern can be sequential, spatial,

temporal, and even linguistic. For
example, the most basic pattern is the
sequence of the dates in the calendar.
•All these phenomena create a repetition
of names or events called regularity.
Patterns in Nature and the Regularities in the World

•Regularity in the world (Collins, 2018),

states the fact that the same thing
always happens in the same
circumstances.
•Pattern is a discernible regularity in the
world or in a man-made design. Hence,
the elements of a pattern repeat in a
predictable manner.
Patterns in Nature and the Regularities in the World

•Patterns in nature are visible regularities

of form found in the natural world. These
patterns recur in different contexts and
can sometimes be modeled
mathematically.
•Natural patterns include symmetries,
trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams,
tessellations, cracks, and stripes.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•Symmetry means an agreement in
dimensions, due proportion, and
arrangement.
•In everyday language, it refers to a
sense of harmonious and beautiful
proportion and balance.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•In mathematics, it means that an object
is invariant to any of various
transformation including reflection,
rotating, or scaling.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•Spiral is a curve that emanates from a
point, moving farther away as it revolves
around the point.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•Meander is one of a series of regular
sinuous curves, bends, loops turns, or
windings in the channel of a river,
stream, or other watercourses.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•It is produced by a stream or river as it
erodes the sediments compromising an
outer, concave bank, and deposits this
and other sediments downstream on an
inner, convex bank which is typically a
point bar.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•Wave is a disturbance that transfers
energy through matter or space, with
little or no associated mass transport.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•It consists of oscillations or vibrations of
a physical medium or a field, around
relatively fixed locations. For example,
surface waves in water show water
ripples.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•Fracture or crack is the separation of an
object or material into two or more
pieces under the action of stress.
•The fracture of a solid usually occurs
due to the development of certain
displacement discontinuity surfaces
within the solid.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•If a displacement develops
perpendicular to the surface of
displacement, it is called a normal
tensile crack or simply a crack; if a
displacement develops tangentially to
the surface of displacement, it is called
shear crack, slip band, or dislocation.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•Stripes are made by a series of bands or
strips, often of the same width and color
along the length.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
•Fractal is a never-ending pattern.
•They are infinitely complex patterns that
are self-similar across different scales.
•They are created by repeating a simple
process over and over in an ongoing
feedback loop.
Some examples of Patterns in Nature
Importance of Mathematics in Life
•According to Katie Kim (2015), Math is a
subject that makes students either jump
for joy or rip their hair out. However,
math is inescapable as you become an
adult in the real world.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
•From calculating complicated algorithms
to counting down the days till the next
Game of Throne episode, Math is
versatile and important, no matter how
hard it is to admit.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
•Consider this list of reasons why
learning math is important to you and
the world.
1. Restaurant tipping
• After you have finished at a restaurant, it is
common courtesy to pay your waiter a
generous tip.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
• You need to have the most basic math
skills to calculate how much a 15% or 20%
tip would be.
• Tipping your waiter shows your
appreciation for his service and ultimately
benefits the restaurant.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
2. Netflix film viewing
• Let’s say you have approximately one hour until you
have to leave to go somewhere very important.
• You really want to fit in a couple of Netflix episodes
before you leave, but you don’t know how many
episodes you will be able to watch.
• For example, an episode of Friends on Netflix is
about 20 minutes and you would be able to fit 3
episodes in that hour.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
3. Calculating Bills
• If you aren’t already, we will all be homeowners
and car-owners one day.
• With ownership comes the major responsibility
of staying on top of mandatory payments like
taxes, mortgages, and insurance.
• Math is required to calculate these payments
and subtract them from your savings.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
4. Doing Exercise
• Getting in shape and staying fit means
achieving your health goals!
• You need math to know how many more reps
to curl, how many seconds to cut off your mile
time, or how many more pounds to lose to
achieve that goal.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
5. Surfing internet
• Ultimately, without math, how would you be
reading this article online at this exact
moment?
• How would you be able to tweet to your friends
or post an Instagram from last night?
• We have math to thank for establishing
technology and the social media that consumes
our lives.
Importance of Mathematics in Life
•Cite an example of why mathematics
is important to your daily life?
Nature of Mathematics
•According to the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (1990),
“Mathematics relies on both logic and
creativity, and it is pursued both for a
variety of practical purposes and for its
intrinsic interest.”
Nature of Mathematics
1. Pattern and Relationships
• Mathematics is the science of patterns and
relationships.
• As a theoretical discipline, mathematics
explores the possible relationships among
abstractions without concern for whether those
abstractions have counterparts in the real
world.
Nature of Mathematics
• The abstractions can be anything from strings
of numbers to geometric figures to a set of
equations.
Nature of Mathematics
2. Abstraction and Symbolic Representation
• Mathematical thinking often begins with the
process of abstraction – that is, noticing a
similarity between two or more objects or
events.
• Aspects that they have in common, whether
concrete or hypothetical, can be represented
by symbols such as numbers, letters,
diagrams, etc.
Nature of Mathematics
• For example, whole numbers are abstractions
that represent the size of sets of things and
events or the order of the things within a set.
• The letter A may be an abstraction for the
surface area of objects of any shape, for the
acceleration of all moving objects, or for all
objects having some specified property.
Nature of Mathematics
3. Manipulating Mathematical Statements
• After abstractions have been made and symbolic
representations of them have been selected, those
symbols can be combined and recombined in various
ways according to precisely defined rules.
• The strings of symbols are combined into statements
that express ideas or propositions.
Nature of Mathematics
• For example, the symbol 𝐴 for the area of any square
be used symbol’s for the length of the square’s side
to form the proposition 𝐴 = 𝑠 2 .
• This equation specifies how the area is related to the
side – and also implies that it depends on nothing
else.
Nature of Mathematics
4. Mathematics, Science, and Technology
• Mathematics is abstract. Its function goes along
well with Science and Technology.
• Because of its abstractness, mathematics is
universal in a sense that other fields of human
thought are not.
Nature of Mathematics
5. Mathematical Inquiry
• Normally, people are confronted with problems.
In order to live at peace, these problems must
be solved.
• Using mathematics to express ideas or to solve
problems involves at least three phases:
1. representing some aspects of things abstractly;
Nature of Mathematics
2. manipulating the abstractions by rules of logic to
find new relationships between them; and
3. seeing whether the new relationships say
something useful about the original things.
Nature of Mathematics
6. Application
• Mathematical processes can lead to a kind of
model of a thing, from which insights can be
gained about the thing itself.
• Any mathematical relationship arrived at by
manipulating abstract statements may or may
not convey something truthful about the thing
being modeled.
Nature of Mathematics
• For example, if 2 cups of water are added to 3 cups
of water and the abstract mathematical operation
2 + 3 = 5 is used to calculate the total, the correct
answer is 5 cups of water.
• However, if 2 cups of sugar are added to 3 cups of hot
tea and the same operation is used, 5 is an incorrect
answer, for such an addition actually results in only
slightly more than 4 cups of very sweet tea.
• Sometimes common sense is enough to enable one to
decide whether the results of the mathematics are
appropriate.
Nature of Mathematics
•Based on the Nature of Mathematics,
1. What new ideas about mathematics did
you learn?
2. What is it about mathematics that might
have changed your thoughts about it?
3. How useful is mathematics to you?
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor

•In order to appreciate mathematics

much better, every person should have
a thorough understanding of the
discipline as a human endeavor.
•Mathematics brings impact to the life a
learner, worker, or an ordinary man in
society.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor

•The influences of mathematics affect

anyone for a lifetime. Mathematics
works in the life of all professionals.
•Mathematics is appreciated as human
endeavor because all professionals and
ordinary people apply its theories and
concepts in the office, laboratory, and
marketplace.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor
•According to Mark Karadimos (2018), the
following professions use Mathematics in
their scope and field of work:
1. Accountant assists businesses by
working on their taxes and planning for
upcoming years. They work with tax
codes and forms, use formulas for
calculating interest, and spend a
considerable amount of energy
organizing paperwork.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor
2. Architects design buildings for structural
integrity and beauty. They must know
how to calculate loads for finding
acceptable materials in design which
involve calculus.
3. Biologists study nature to act in concert
with it since we are very closely tied to
nature. They use proportions to count
animals as well as use statistics or
probability.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor

4. Chemists find ways to use chemicals

to assist people in purifying water
dealing with waste management,
researching superconductors,
analyzing crime scenes, making food
products, and in working with
biologists to study the human body.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor

5. Engineers build
products/structures/systems like
automobiles, buildings, computers,
machines, and planes. They cannot
escape the frequent use of a variety of
calculus.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor

6. Lawyers argue cases using complicated

lines of reason. That skill is nurtured by
high-level math courses. They also spend
a lot of time researching cases, which
means learning relevant codes, laws, and
ordinances. Building cases demands a
strong sense of language with specific
emphasis on hypotheses and
conclusions.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor
7. Managers maintain schedules, regulate
worker performance, and analyze
productivity.
8. Medical doctors must understand the
dynamic systems of the human body.
They research illnesses, carefully
administer the proper amounts of
medicine, read charts/tables, organize
their workload and manage the duties of
nurses and technicians.
Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor
9. Nurses carry out the detailed instructions
doctors give them. They adjust
intravenous drip rates, take vitals,
dispense medicine, and even assist in
operations.
10.Politicians help solve the social problems
of our time by making complicated
decisions within the confines of the law,
public opinion, and budgetary restraints.
Seatwork
•Read Nature’s Number Chapter 1 by Ian
Stewart and write a journal by
answering the question “What new ideas
about mathematics did you learn?”
“Those laws of nature are within the grasp of the human
mind; God wanted us to recognize them by creating us
after his own image so that we could share his own
thoughts”
- Johannes Kepler
Reference
• Manlulu, E., and Hipolito, L. (2019). A Course
Module for Mathematics in the Modern World.
Rex Bookstore, Inc.: Quezon City.
•Daligidg, R. (2019). Mathematics in the Modern
World. Lomar Publishing Inc.: Quezon City.
• Freeman J. Dyson (1996) Nature's Numbers. By Ian
Stewart, The American Mathematical Monthly,
103:7, 610-612, DOI:
10.1080/00029890.1996.12004795