MODULE

LESSON

I. INTRODUCTION:
Mathematics is a useful way to think about nature and our world. The nature of
mathematics underscores the exploration of patterns (in nature and the environment).
Mathematics exists everywhere and it is applied in the most useful phenomenon. Even
looking by just at the ordinary part of the house, the room and the street, mathematics is
there. This is one subject thought as the sole objective language that people in the modern
world understand each other.
This module will introduce you to Mathematics, its pattern in nature, its regularities in
the world, the Fibonacci sequence, nature of Mathematics and its role to some disciplines.
This will also let you appreciate mathematic as human endeavor.

II. OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
1. identify patterns in nature and regularities in the world;
2. articulate the importance of mathematics in one’s life;
3. argue about the nature of mathematics, what it is, how it is expressed and used;
4. discuss the role of mathematics in some disciplines; and
5. express appreciation for mathematics as human endeavor.

III. LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

Open your eyes and look around you! Take a picture of things or situation where
you think mathematics is involved and explain how it is evident. Give at least 3 examples.

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 ACTIVITY 1. Do the following:
 Go to your garden or yard, look for a plant and start counting its leaves and petals. Write
your results on this form:
o Plant Name or Description: ___________________
o Do the leaves grow in spirals? Yes/No
o What is the pattern of the leaves?
o Are there flowers? Yes/No
o What is the arrangement of the petals? _______________
 Imagine a pineapple. How many designs are in the outer skin of pineapple? Is there a
pattern? (Yes/No). Justify your answer.
_______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 2.
 Watch a video “Nature by Numbers” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA, a
short movie of Cristobal Vilas produced by Eterea Studios. After watching the video,
answer the guide questions that follows.
Guide Question:

o What patterns were shown in the video?

o How does this specific pattern occur?
o What figures illustrates same pattern?
o What quantities (numbers, angle degree, geometric shapes shown in what living
things?

Patterns in Nature and the Regularities in the World

Patterns and counting are correlative. Counting happens when there is pattern. When there is
counting, there is logic. Consequently, pattern in nature goes with logic or logical set-up. There are
reasons behind a certain pattern. That's why, oftentimes, some people develop an understanding of
patterns, relationships, and functions and use them to represent and explain real-world phenomena.
Most people say that mathematics is the science behind patterns. Mathematics exists everywhere as

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 patterns do in nature. Not only do patterns take many forms within the range of school mathematics,
they are als0 a unifying mechanism.

Number patterns-such as 2, 4, 6, 8-are familiar to us since they are among the patterns first
learned in our younger years. As we advance, we experience number patterns again through the huge
concept of functions in mathematics inside and outside school. But patterns are much broader and
common anywhere anytime.

Patterns can be sequential, spatial, temporal, and even linguistic. The me basic pattern is the
sequence of the dates in the calendar such as 1 to 30 being used month after month; the seven (7) days
in a week 1.e. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the twelve (12)
months i.e. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, O Da November,
December, and the regular holidays in a year 1.e. New Year's Day. Valentine's Day, Holy Week, Labor
Day, Independence Day, National Heroes Day, Ramadan, All Saints Day, Bonifacio Day, Christmas Day
and Rizal Day. These are celebrated in the same sequence every year. All these phenomena create
repetition of names or events called regularity.

In this world, a regularity (Collins, 2018), is the fact that the same thing always happens in the
same circumstances. While a pattern is a discernible regularity in the world or in a man-made design.
As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. Patterns in nature (wikipedia) are
visible regularities of form found in the natural world. These patterns recur in different contexts and can
sometimes be modelled mathematically. Natural patterns include symmetries, trees, spirals,
meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks and stripes. A geometric pattern is a kind of
pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated like a wallpaper design. In Algebra, there are
two common categories of patterns, the repeating pattern and the growing pattern. Regularity in the
world states the fact that the same thing always happens in the same circumstances.

According to Ian Stewart (1995), we live in a universe of patterns. Every night the stars move
in circles across the sky. The seasons cycle at yearly intervals. No two snowflakes are ever exactly the
same, but they all have six-fold symmetry. Tigers and zebras are covered in patterns of stripes, leopards
and hyenas are covered in patterns of spots. Intricate trains of waves march across the ocean; very
similar trains of sand dunes march across the desert. Colored arcs of light adorn the sky in the form of
rainbows, and a bright circular halo sometimes surrounds the moon on winter nights. Spherical drops of
water fall from clouds. Human mind and culture have developed a formal system of thought for
recognizing, classifying, and exploiting patterns. We call it mathematics. By using mathematics to
organize and systematize our ideas about patterns, we have discovered a great secret: nature's patterns
are not just there to be admired, they are vital clues to the rules that govern natural processes.

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 SOME EXAMPLES OF PATTERNS IN NATURE

Symmetry (Wikipedia) means agreement in

dimensions, due proportion and arrangement. In
everyday language, it refers to a sense of harmonious
and beautiful proportion and balance. In
mathematics, "symmetry means that an object is
invariant to any of various transformations including
reflection, rotation or scaling.

A spiral is a curve which emanates from a

point, moving farther away as it revolves around the
point. Cutaway of a nautilus shell shows the chambers
arranged in an approximately logarithmic spiral.

A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous

curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel
of a river, stream, or other watercourse. It is produced
by a stream or river swinging from side to side as it
flows across its floodplain or shifts its channel within a
valley.

A wave is a disturbance that transfers

energy through matter or space, with little or no
associated mass transport. Waves consist of
oscillations or vibrations of a physical medium or a
field, around relatively fixed locations. Surface
waves in water show water ripples.

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 Foam is a substance formed by trapping
pockets of gas in a liquid or solid. A bath sponge and
the head on a glass of beer are examples of foams.
In most foams, the volume of gas is large, with thin
films of liquid or solid separating the regions of gas.
Soap foams are also known as suds.

A tessellation of a flat surface is the tiling

of a plane using one or more geometric shapes,
called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps. In
mathematics, tessellations can be generalized to
higher dimensions and a variety of geometries.

A 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. 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 a shear crack, slip band, or dislocation.

Stripes are made by a series of bands or

strips, often of the same width and color along the
length

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 A fractal is a never-ending pattern. Fractals 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.
Driven by recursion, fractals are images of dynamic
systems - the pictures of chaos. Geometrically, they exist
in between our familiar dimensions. Fractal patterns are
extremely familiar, since nature is full of fractals. For
instance: trees, rivers, coastlines, mountains, clouds,
seashells, hurricanes, etc.

Affine Transformations. These are the

processes of rotation, reflection and scaling. Many plant
forms utilize these processes to generate their structure.
In the case of Broccoli and Cauliflower heads, it can
readily be seen that there is a type of pattern, which also
shows some spiraling in the case of Broccoli. What is
happening in Cauliflower head is perhaps not so obvious
but in the case of a fern the rotating pattern is very
evident. Each branch appears to be a smaller version of
the main plant and so on, at smaller scales.

FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

Another one in this world that involves pattern is the Fibonacci number (Grist, 2011). These
numbers are nature's numbering system. They appear everywhere in nature, from the leaf arrangement
in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple.

The Fibonacci numbers are therefore applicable to the growth of every living thing, including a
single cell, a grain of wheat, a hive of bees and even all of mankind. In Mathematics, (wikipedia), the
Fibonacci numbers are the numbers in the following integer sequence, called the Fibonacci sequence,
and characterized by the fact that every number after the first two is the sum of the two preceding ones:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, ...

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 To find the nth Fibonacci number use the Binet form of the Fibonacci sequence:

Example: Use the Binet formula to determine the 25th, 30th and 50th Fibonacci number.

Solution: F25 = 75,025 F30= 832,040 F50= 1.26 X 1010

George Dvorsky (2013) highlighted that the famous Fibonacci sequence has captivated
mathematicians, artists, designers, and scientists for centuries. Also known as the Golden Ratio, its
ubiquity and astounding functionality in nature suggests its importance as a fundamental characteristic
of the universe. Leonardo Fibonacci came up with the sequence when calculating the ideal expansion
pairs of rabbits over the course of one year. Today, its emergent patterns and ratios (phi = 1.61803...)
can be seen from the microscale to the macroscale, and right through to biological systems and inanimate
objects. While the Golden Ratio doesn't account for every structure or pattern in the universe, it's certainly
a major player. Here are some examples:

1. Seed heads. The head of a flower is also subject to

Fibonaccian processes. Typically, seeds are produced at the center, and
then migrate towards the outside to fill all the space. Sunflowers provide
a great example of these spiraling patterns.

2. Pine cones. Similarly, the seed pods on a pinecone are arranged

in a spiral pattern. Each cone consists of a pair of spirals, each one spiraling
upwards in opposing directions. The number of steps will almost always
match a pair of consecutive Fibonacci numbers. For example, a 3-5 cone is a
cone which meets at the back after three steps along the left spiral, and five
steps along the right.

3. Tree branches. The Fibonacci sequence can also

be seen in the way tree branches form or split. A main
trunk will grow until it produces a branch, which
creates two growth points. Then, one of the new
stems branches into two, while the other one lies
dormant. This pattern of branching is repeated for
each of the new stems. A good example is the
sneezewort. Root systems and even algae exhibit this
pattern.
Lesson 1 – Mathematics in our World Page 8
 4. Shells. The unique properties of the Golden Rectangle provide
another example. This shape, a rectangle in which the ratio of the
sides a/b is equal to the golden mean (phi), can result in a nesting
can be repeated into process that infinity-and which takes on the
form of a spiral. It's called the logarithmic spiral, and it abounds in
nature.

5. Spiral galaxies and hurricane. Not surprisingly, spiral galaxies

also follow the familiar fibonacci pattern. The Milky Way has several
spiral arms, each of them a logarithmic spiral ot about 12 degrees. As
an interesting aside, spiral galaxies appear to defy Newtonian physics.

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. From calculating
complicated algorithms to counting down the days till the next Game of Thrones episode, math is versatile
and important, no matter how hard it is to admit. Before you decide to doze off in math class, consider
this list of reasons why learning math is important to you and the world.

1. Restaurant Tipping.

After you have finished eating at a restaurant, it is common courtesy to pay your waiter a
generous tip. 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, too.

2. Netflix film viewing.

Let's say you have approximately one hour until you have to leave to go somewhere very
important, like your job or your grandmother's birthday party. You really want to fit in a couple Netflix
episodes before you leave, but you don't know how many you will be able to watch. You need math to
figure that out! For example, an episode of Friends on Netflix is about 20 minutes... so you would be
able to fit 3 episodes in that hour. As simple as it is, math just made your hour 100 times better.

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 3. Calculating Bill.

If you aren't already, we will all be home-owners and car-owners one day. With ownership comes
the major responsibility of staying on top of mandatory payments like taxes, mortgage, and insurance.
Math is required to calculate these payments and subtract them from your savings.

4. Computing Test Scores.

It is towards the end of May, and for all high school students, the school year is coming to an
end very soon. That also means final report cards will be coming out. In order to finish with an A in that
tough class, you need to know what to get on the next test to keep your average up. You need math to
calculate that test score (and maybe even to ace the test) to know what your final grade can be.

5. Tracking Career.

Math is needed for almost every single profession in the world. If you want to be a CEO, a real
estate agent, a biologist, or even a rocket scientist, it is without a doubt that numbers will be utilized.
Basically, you will NEVER be able to escape math and you might as well accept it and have fun learning
it while your career does not depend on it.

6. Doing Exercise.

Getting in shape and staying fit means achieving your health goals! Maybe you want to meet a
personal goal by the end of the month. You need math to know how many more reps to curl, or how
many seconds to cut off your mile or time, or how many more pounds to lose to achieve that goal.

7. Handling Money.

Another aspect of growing up into a young adult is opening and managing a bank account. It is
important to be accurate in math to care for your precious savings, making sure there are no mistakes.

8. Making Countdowns.

For many, this will be the most important reason on this list to know math: so you can
countdown the days until school is over and summer starts!

9. Baking and Cooking.

Baking and cooking are hobbies enjoyed by many. In order to prevent unexpected results, you
have to know the difference between a quarter of a cup from a quarter of a teaspoon. Baking+
cooking=fractions=math!

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 10. 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.

NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

It is important to further discuss the nature of mathematics, what it is, how it is expressed,
represented and used.

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. For some people, and not only professional mathematicians, the essence of
mathematics lies in its beauty and intellectual challenge.

1. Patterns and Relationships. Mathematics is the science of patterns and relationships. As a

theoretical discipline, mathematics explores the possible relationships among abstractions without for
whether those abstractions have counterparts in the real world. The abstractions can be anything from
strings of numbers to geometric figures to sets of equations.

2. 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. It finds useful applications in business, industry, music, historical scholarship,
politics, sports, medicine, agriculture, engineering, and the social and natural sciences.

3. 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, (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.

4. 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,
other marks, diagrams, geometrical constructions, or even words. Whole numbers are abstractions that
represent the size of sets of things and events or the order of things within a set. The circle as a concept
is an abstraction derived from human faces, flowers, wheels, or spreading ripples; 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; the symbol + represents a process of addition, whether

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 one is adding apples or oranges, hours, or miles per hour. Abstractions are made not only from concrete
objects or processes; they can also be made from other abstractions, such as kinds of numbers (the even
numbers, for instance).

5. 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. Typically, strings of symbols are combined into statements
that express ideas or propositions.

For example, the symbol A for the area of any square may be used with the symbol s for the length of
the square's side to form the proposition A = s2. This equation specifies how the area is related to the
side-and also implies insights can be gained about the thing itself.

6. Application. Mathematical processes can lead to a kind of model of a thing, from which arrived at
by manipulating abstract statements may or may not convey something truthful about the thing being
modeled.
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.

THE ROLE OF MATHEMATICS IN SOME DISCIPLINES

Mathematics is offered in any college course. It is found in every curriculum because its theories
and applications are needed in any workplace. That's why students can't stay away from attending math
classes. There has to be mathematics in the real world. This subject always brings life to any person or
professional. Every second of the day needs mathematical knowledge and skills to perform academic
activities and office routines. If ordinary people have to use math, then much more for students to know
and master it so they will succeed in class in the school.
As posted by Angel Rathnabai (2014), Mathematics is not only number work or computation, but
is more about forming generalization, seeing relationships, and developing logical thinking and reasoning.

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 Here are some main disciplines in which the role of Mathematics is widely accepted:
1. Mathematics in Physical Sciences 10. Mathematics and Logic
2. Mathematics in Chemistry 11. Mathematics in Music
3. Mathematics in Biological Sciences 12. Mathematics in Arts
4. Mathematics in Engineering and 13. Mathematics in Philosophy
Technology 14. Mathematics in Social Networks
5. Mathematics and Agriculture 15. Mathematics in Political Science
6. Mathematics and Economics 16. Mathematics in Linguistics
7. Mathematics and Psychology 17. Mathematics in Management
8. Mathematics and Actuarial Science, 18. Mathematics in Computers
Insurance and Finance 19. Mathematics in Geography
9. Mathematics and Archeology

APPRECIATING MATHEMATICS AS A HUMAN ENDEAVOR

In order to appreciate mathematics much better, every person should have the thorough
understanding of the discipline as a human endeavor. Mathematics brings impact to the life a learner,
worker, or an ordinary man in society. 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. According to Mark Karadimos
(2018), the following professions use Mathematics in their scope and field of work:
 Accountants  Medical Doctors
 Agriculturists  Meteorologists
 Architects  Military Personnel
 Biologists  Nurses
 Chemists  Politicians
 Computer Programmers  Salespeople
 Engineers  Technicians
 Lawyers  Tradesmen
 Managers

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 To realize the love for and interest in mathematics, Annenberg Learner shared the following notes
that mathematics is everywhere and is always an integral part of human endeavor.
How can math be so universal?
According to Annenberg Learner (2017) First, human beings didn't invent math concepts; we
discovered them. Math can help us to shop wisely, buy the right insurance, remodel a home within a
budget, understand population growth, or even bet on the horse with the best chance of winning the
race.
When you put money in a savings account, the bank pays you interest according to what you
deposit. In effect, the bank is paying you for the privilege of "borrowing” your money. The same is true
for the interest you pay on a loan you take from the bank or the money you "borrow" from a credit card.
With population growth, new members of the population eventually produce other new members
of the population. Population increases exponentially as time passes.
What does math have to do with home decorating? Most home decorators need to work within a
budget. But in order to figure out what you'll spend, you first have to know what you need. Understanding
some basic geometry can help you stick to your budget.
Not all people are chefs, but we are all eaters. Most of us need to learn how to follow a recipe at
some point. To create dishes with good flavor, consistency, and texture, the various ingredients must
have a kind of relationship to one another. For instance, to make cookies that both look and taste like
cookies, you need to make sure you use the right amount of each ingredient.
Mathematics is the only language shared by all human beings regardless of culture, religion, or
gender. Pi is still approximately 3.14159 regardless of what same math process regardless of whether
the total is expressed in dollars, country you are in. Adding up the cost of a basket full of groceries
involves rubles, or yen. With this universal language, all of us, no matter what our unit of exchange, are
likely to arrive at math results the same way".
Being fast in mental arithmetic can save your money when you go to the market. Mathematics is
all around us. With these, mathematics can be a great aid in all our activities in the world and deserves
huge appreciation and therefore everyone realizes the following:
1. Mathematics helps organize patterns and regularities.
2. Mathematics helps predict the behavior of nature and phenomena in the world.
3. Mathematics helps control nature and occurrences in the world for our own ends.
4. Mathematics has numerous applications in the world making it indispensable.

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 A. Identification. Write the correct word on the blank that is being referred to in the following:
_____________ 1. A series of regular sinuous curves, bends, loops turns, or windings in the channel
of a river, stream, or other watercourse.
_____________ 2. A disturbance that transfers energy through matter or space, with little or no
associated mass transport.
_____________ 3. A substance formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid.
_____________ 4. A tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes with no overlap or gaps.
_____________ 5. A curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around
the point.
_____________ 6. An arrangement in dimension, due proportion, an arrangement
_____________ 7. This occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces
within the solid.
_____________ 8. Is characterized by the fact that every number after the first two is the sum of
the preceding ones.
_____________ 9. A series of bands or strips, often of the same width and color along length.
_____________ 10. The infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different styles.

B. Cite the mathematical application that you commonly do in each of the following stations and
state your appreciation.
Stations Applications and Appreciation for Mathematics

1. Market

2. Bus/Jeepney

3. Church

4. Club meeting

5. Clinic

6. Court

7. Laboratory

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 8. Birthday Party

9. Watching games

10. Police Station

C. Short response. Answer the questions that follows.

o What is mathematics?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

o What new ideas about mathematics did you learn?

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

o What is about mathematics that might have changed your thoughts about it?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

o What is most useful about mathematics for humankind?

__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

o Do you think the subject Mathematics in which you are enrolled is important? Yes/No?
Why? Cite examples.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

IV. REFERENCES:

 Daligdig, Romeo M. (2019), MATHEMATICS in the Modern World, LORIMAR Publishing Inc,
p 2-21.
 Flores, Rowena L. et. al (2018), Jimczyville Publications, p 1-22.
 www.google.com – Photos (Examples of Patterns in Nature)
 www.google.com – Photos (Seed head, pine cone, tree branches, shell and spiral galaxy)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA – Nature by Numbers Video

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