RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

MODULE 1: NATURE AND REGULARITIES IN THE WORLD

Lesson 1- Patterns in Nature

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify patterns in nature and regularities in the world.
• Articulate the importance of mathematics in one’s life.

Lesson Proper

What is mathematics? Where could you observe the use of mathematics? What role does
mathematics play in your world? We will try to answer these questions as we go along our lesson.
While many of us goes by the definition of mathematics as the abstract science of number,
quantity and space, there is an existing notion that mathematics maybe studied on its own right
(pure math) or as it is applied to other disciplines such as physics and engineering. But how does
Mathematics shape the world? The following is an article available online at
https://medium.com/math. Kindly read the article and reflect on it.

Beauty of Numbers & Patterns — A World Shaped By Math

(Excerpt from the article of Manan Singh)

“Mathematics is a tool. Play with it any way you want and see if you can make something. Don’t worry
if you break the tool, we’ll rebuild it, together.”

Today, we’ll be talking about the essence of mathematics and how it shapes the world around us.
The intention behind this post is to show the beauty of math to people, how it governs nature
without most of us even noticing it. Well, we want to talk about so much but we have to keep it
compact, to give a brief idea over a lot of things. Hope you enjoy the read.

One of the things about Mathematics that we love the most is it’s uncanny ability to reveal hidden
beautiful patterns in our everyday life, the nature around us. These patterns can be sequential,

Mathematics in the Modern World: Module 1 Methelyn H. Garzon 1

 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

spatial, temporal, and even linguistic. There are connections between things that don’t seem
connected but can be observed with the intellect of math. One beautiful example is — fireflies
flashing in unison and a pattern that can be solved mathematically. You may ask, what’s the point
of that practically? Well, engineers at Cornell Institute used the above work to make little
electronic clocks get in sync, which is a very important aspect in the distributive computing and
internet itself.

In short, we can say mathematics is the science of patterns…

A. Patterns in Nature

Look at the figure of flower

petals. Count the number of petals on
each of the flowers. What numbers do
you get? Well, you may have gotten a
different count for each of the flowers.
Yes, you are correct. Each flower has a
unique number of petals. Now try to
look at the shape. What can you say Petals of various flowers exhibiting different number patterns
about the shapes and sizes of the petals?
Just like the number you counted- they also have differences. But one thing to note is that, the
number, shape and size of petals help us determine which flower are we looking at. Biologists,
or even common people uses this particular way to classify flowers, which is better understood
to be patterns in nature.

What then is a pattern?

A pattern is defined as the regular, repeated or recurring forms or designs used to identify
relationships and find logical connections to form generalizations found in nature is the visible
regularity of forms we see in the natural setting. These patters recur in different contexts and can
sometimes be modelled mathematically. Natural patterns are as follows:

• Symmetry- variously defined as

“proportion” and a “structure that
allows an object to be divided such
that the resulting parts are mirror
images of each other. A butterfly is
a concrete example of symmetry
found in nature. It is symmetric
(Left) butterfly with bilateral symmetry; (Right) starfish with rotational symmetry
about the axis indicated by the red
line. Note that the left and right portions are exactly the same. This is the so- called
bilateral symmetry. Another type of symmetry is the rotational symmetry shown by a
starfish.

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Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

• Spirals

Looking at the sunflower, there

is a definite pattern of clockwise
and counterclockwise arc of
spirals extending outward from
the center of the flower.
Meanwhile, as the snail grow,
their shells also expand
(Left)- The sunflower has arc patters; (Right)- the shell of a snail
proportionally. This process exhibits an equiangular spiral
results in a refined spiral structure called equiangular spiral.

• Spots/ Stripes

Patters are also exhibited in external appearances of animals. The tiger’s look and the
hyena’s spot, seems to be random designs but are believed to be governed by
mathematical equation.

Stripes and spots as seen on the skins of a lion and a hyena respectively.

• Fractals

A fractal is a typical mathematical shape that is said to be “infinitely complex”. In essence,

it is a pattern that repeats forever, and every part of the fractal, regardless of how zoomed
in or out you are, it looks very similar to the whole image. Once the basic concept of
fractals is understood, it is shocking to see the large number of fractals found in nature
which includes the common example on trees, animal circulatory system, snowflakes and
crystals among others.

Fractals in crystals (left), snowflakes (middle) and trees (right)

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 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

Nature exhibits a vast number of patterns for our own eyes to see. Other types of patterns includes
waves or dunes, bubbles and foam, cracks and chaos. Even chaos has a pattern?

Talking more about patters, the “Chaos Theory” is a hot topic among many
mathematicians. In fact, chaos is considered as an interdisciplinary theory stating that even the
apparent randomness of complex systems has underlying patterns, constant feedback loops,
repetition, self- similarity, fractals and self- organization. To know more about the Chaos theory,
you may view the online resource through the link below:

http://www.patternsinnature.org/Book/Chaos.html

Activity

M1.A1. REFLECTION PAPER

After reading the article and the module, write a reflection paper which tackles how do
numbers and patterns beautify the world and how is this important to you and to the world. You
may cite and raise certain points written in the reading material. Your reflection must be not less
than 250 words. Your works will be graded according to the following criteria:

Clarity &Coherence of Ideas 5

Reflection & Relation to the topic 5
Originality 5
Timeliness 5
Total 20 points

You may check the CLASS WORKS section in the LMS to view the submission page for this
activity.

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 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig

References

• Aufmann, R. (2018). Mathematics in the Modern World. Rex Publishing. Manila, Philippines
• Guillermo, R.(2018). Mathematics in the Modern World: A Worktext. Nieme Publishing House
Co. LTD. Quezon City, Philippines
• Jorgensen, S.E (2008). “Chaos Theory” in Encyclopedia of Ecology available at
https://bit.ly/2Vpx5wa
• Singh, Manan (2017). “Beauty of Numbers & Patterns — A World Shaped By Math” available
at https://bit.ly/3l0MbRp

Images & Icons:

• https://bit.ly/3BSbDQ3
• https://bit.ly/3BNO0rL
• https://bit.ly/3BKr10L

Mathematics in the Modern World: Module 1 Methelyn H. Garzon 5