Discussion

PALAWAN STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Sciences

MATHEMATICS IN
THE MODERN
WORLD
MATHEMATICS IN
OUR WORLD

THE NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

MODULE 1
 Discussion
A. PATTERNS IN NATURE AND IN THE WORLD
Many of us misinterpret mathematics as the study Did you know?
of numbers and that only those who are excellent with
numbers can be called mathematicians. But it is not really
the numbers that matter to a mathematician; rather, it is
what they represent. The mathematician’s true purpose is
to study, discover, or create patterns. While a scientist
studies an actual object, being, or phenomenon, the
mathematician provides him/her patterns, structures, and The wings of a butterfly often sport
relationships involved in whatever the scientist studies. patches of color and stripes that
can imitate eyes or warn of toxins
and therefore deter predators.
Patterns provide clear insight into understanding
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the natural world. While we know that animals and plants
are far from thinking beings, they do have certain habits
and characteristics that exist in patterns. Scientists and biologists believe that
understanding these behavioral patterns will provide us a clearer understanding of all
living things.

✓ What does the word pattern mean?

A pattern is considered as any kind of regularity that can be recognized by the

mind. These could be mathematical or non-mathematical patterns. Learning how to
recognize these patterns would be valuable to you as you gain mathematical maturity and
become a problem solver.

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_Center_Construction(cropped).jpg
 Discussion
We think of patterns as something that just repeats again and again throughout
space in an identical way, sort of like a wallpaper pattern. But many patterns that we see
in nature aren’t quite like that. We sense that there is something regular or at least not
random about them, but that doesn’t mean that all the elements are identical. One familiar
example of that would be the zebra’s stripes. Everyone can recognize the zebra’s stripes
as a pattern, but no stripe is like any other stripe on its skin. However, the pattern is still
so striking, beautiful, and remarkable. That’s the beauty of natural patterns, and it makes
us wonder: How does nature without any kind of blueprint or design put together patterns
like this?
If we look around us, we will see different kinds of pattern. Some are natural, some
are man- made, some give us a scientific image, some have artistic vibe, and some are
intangible like software patterns. Like math, patterns can be seen all around us. It’s just
about everywhere! In this part of the module, we will focus only on the patterns that we
see in nature.
“But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.”
- Rene Descartes
Patterns in nature are the visible regularities of form found in the natural world.
These patterns recur in different contexts and can sometimes be modelled
mathematically.

✓ What are the different natural patterns?

Natural Patterns include:

a. Symmetries
b. Fractals or Trees
c. Spirals
d. Chaos, Flow, Meanders
e. Waves, Dunes
f. Bubbles, Foam
g. Tessellations
h. Cracks
i. Spots, Stripes

✓ Look at your face in the mirror. Imagine a vertical line Patterns in nature are the
visible regularities of form found in the natural world. These patterns recur in
different contexts and can sometimes be modelled mathematically.

✓ What kind of pattern do the questions above show you? This pattern is called
symmetry.
 Discussion

NATURAL PATTERNS
a. Symmetry. Figures can have two distinct types of symmetry: reflection (mirror or
bilateral) symmetry and rotation (radial) n-fold symmetry, which we informally
differentiate below.
• A figure has reflection symmetry if there is a line that can be “folded over” so that
one-half of the figure matches the other half perfectly. The “fold line” is called the
figure’s line (axis) of symmetry.
• A figure has rotation symmetry if there is a point around which the figure can be
rotated, less than a full turn, so that the image matches the original figure perfectly.

A tiger has reflection symmetry. A starfish has rotation symmetry. A snowflake has rotation symmetry.

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b. Fractals or Trees. From the word fraction, or part of a whole, fractals are self-similar,
iterated mathematical constructs where shrinking and moving are applied many times.
In a fractal, you will observe that as new shapes are constructed, they are similar to
each of the previous shapes, that is, the basic components of a fractal are similar to
the whole. This means that you can zoom into forever and find exactly the same
shapes.

Angelica flowerhead, a sphere made of

leaf of cow parsley
spheres (self-similar)
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 Discussion

fractals spirals: Romanesco broccoli trees: dendritic copper crystals trees: Lichtenberg figure: high
(under a microscope) voltage
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c. Spirals. Spirals are the patterns that we see in many plants and some animals, notably
mollusks. To get a better picture, we will pay attention to a particular kind, the nautilus
shell. In a nautilus, each chamber of its shell is an approximate copy of the next one,
scaled by a constant factor and arranged in a logarithmic spiral. We can say that
growth spiral can be seen as a special case of self-similarity.

spiral aloe spiraling shell spiraling shell

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d. Chaos, Meanders. In mathematics, a dynamical system is chaotic if it is (highly)
sensitive to initial conditions. Meanders on the other hand are sinuous bends in rivers
or other channels, which form as a fluid, most often water, flows around bends.

chaos: shell of gastropod mollusk meanders: sinuous snake crawling meanders: symmetrical brain coral
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 Discussion
e. Waves, Dunes. Waves are disturbances that carry energy as they move. While dunes
are created when winds blow over large bodies of sand. Dunes may form a range of
patterns including crescents, very long straight lines, stars, domes, parabolas, and
longitudinal or seif ('sword') shapes.

waves: breaking wave in a ship’s dunes: barchan crescent sand dune wind ripples with dislocations
wake
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f. Bubbles, Foam. A soap bubble forms a sphere. Two bubbles together form a more
complex shape: the outer surfaces of both bubbles are spherical; these surfaces are
joined by a third spherical surface as the smaller bubble bulges slightly into the larger
one. A foam is a mass of bubbles. Mathematical models of bubbles and foams are
considered as collections of surfaces which minimize are under volume constraints.

foam of soap bubbles: four edges equal spheres (gas bubbles) in a

meet at each vertex surface foam
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✓ Have you heard of a tessellation?
✓ What is a tessellation?
g. Tessellations. Tessellations are patterns formed by repeating tiles all over a flat
surface. Among animals, bony fish and reptiles like the pangolin, are protected by
overlapping scales or osteoderms. These form more or less exactly repeating units,
though often the scales in fact vary continuously in size.
 Discussion

honeycomb rock formation on the Tasman Peninsula

scales of common roach

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h. Cracks. Cracks are linear openings that form in materials to relieve stress. When
an elastic material stretches or shrinks uniformly, it eventually reaches its breaking
strength and then fails suddenly in all directions. Conversely, when an inelastic
material fails, straight cracks form to relieve the stress. Further stress in the same
direction would then simply open the existing cracks; stress at right angles can create
new cracks. Thus, the pattern of cracks indicates whether the material is elastic or
not. In a tough fibrous material like oak tree bark, cracks form to relieve stress as
usual, but they do not grow long as their growth is interrupted by bundles of strong
elastic fibers. Since each species of tree has its own structure at the levels of cell and
of molecules, each has its own pattern of splitting in its bark.

drying inelastic mud drying elastic mud palm trunk

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 Discussion
i. Spots, Stripes. One function of animal patterns is camouflage; another function
is signaling. These patterns have an evolutionary explanation: they
have functions which increase the chances that the offspring of the patterned animal
will survive to reproduce. Leopards and ladybirds are spotted; angelfish and zebras are
striped. But while these evolutionary and functional arguments explain why these
animals need their patterns, they do not explain how the patterns are formed.

Dirce beauty butterfly breeding pattern of cuttlefish, sepia officinalis

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Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small
piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.
- Richard P. Feynman in The Character of Physical Law