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Lecture 1

Mathematics encompasses the study of numbers, quantities, and shapes, fostering creativity, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. It reveals patterns in nature, aids in predicting behaviors, and is essential for understanding real-world phenomena through concepts like symmetry and the Fibonacci sequence. The document highlights various mathematical applications, including population modeling and packing problems, demonstrating the importance of mathematics in both academic and practical contexts.

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Amjay Alejo
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8 views

Lecture 1

Mathematics encompasses the study of numbers, quantities, and shapes, fostering creativity, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. It reveals patterns in nature, aids in predicting behaviors, and is essential for understanding real-world phenomena through concepts like symmetry and the Fibonacci sequence. The document highlights various mathematical applications, including population modeling and packing problems, demonstrating the importance of mathematics in both academic and practical contexts.

Uploaded by

Amjay Alejo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

Mathematics is the study of the relationships among numbers, quantities and shapes. It includes
arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geometry, statistics and calculus. Mathematics nurtures human
characteristics like power of creativity, reasoning, critical thinking, spatial thinking and others. It
provides the opportunity to solve both simple and complex problems in many real-world contexts
using a variety of strategies. Mathematics is a universal way to make sense of the world and to
communicate understanding of concepts and rules using the mathematical symbols, signs, proofs,
language and conventions.
Mathematics helps organize patterns and regularities in our world. The geometry of most patterns
in nature can be associated, either directly or indirectly, mathematical numbers. The limit and
extent to which natural patterns adhere to mathematical series and numbers are amazing.
Mathematics helps predict the behavior of nature and phenomena in the world. It helps control
nature and occurrences in the world for the good of mankind. Because of its numerous applications,
mathematics becomes indispensable. 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. Students with such skills are better problem solvers, and have a better sense and appreciation
of nature and the world. Hence, they should have opportunities to analyze, synthesize and create a
variety of patterns and to use pattern-based thinking to understand and represent mathematical and
other real-world phenomena. These explorations present unlimited opportunities for problem-
solving, verifying generalizations and building mathematical and scientific competence.
Examples:

What number comes next?


1, 3, 5, 7, 9, ____
1,4, 9, 16, 25, ____

Symmetry: It indicates that you can draw an imaginary line across an object and the resulting
parts are mirror images of each other.

Excerpts from Mathematics in the Modern World: Chapter 1 by R.Aufmann et. al


The figure above is symmetric about the axis indicated by the dotted line. Note that the left and
right portions are exactly the same. This type of symmetry, known as line or bilateral symmetry,
is evident in most animals, including humans. Look in a mirror and see how left and right sides
of your face closely match.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man showing the proportions and symmetry of the human body

Take a look at the following images below. If you try to rotate the Spiderwort and the starfish by
several degrees, you can still achieve the same appearance as the original position. This is known
as rotational symmetry. The smallest angle that a figure can be rotated while preserving the
original formation is called the angle of rotation.

Order of Rotation.
360
Angle of Rotation =
𝑛
The spiderwort has a 3-fold symmetry with an angle of rotation equal to 120 degrees. While for
the starfish has 5-fold symmetry equal 72 degrees. The snowflake has a 6-fold symmetry with an
angle of rotation equal to 60 degrees.

Excerpts from Mathematics in the Modern World: Chapter 1 by R.Aufmann et. al


Another marvel of nature’s design is the structure and shape of a honeycomb. It is observed that
such formation enables the bee colony to maximize their storage for honey using the smallest
amount of wax.

You can try it yourself using several coins of the same size, try to cover as much area of a piece of
paper with coins. You will observe that the square formation will cover less area while a hexagonal
formation there will be more area covered. These types of problems are called packing problems,
which involves the optimum method of filling up a given space usch as cubic or spherical
container.

To express this mathematically.


Suppose you have circles of radius 1 cm, each will have and area
of π cm2.

For square packing, the area covered by the stacked circles in


the square region is:
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝜋 𝑠𝑞. 𝑐𝑚
= 𝑥100% = 78.54%
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑠 4 𝑠𝑞. 𝑐𝑚
For hexagonal packing, the area covered by the stacked circles in
The hexagonal region is:

𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠 3𝜋 𝑠𝑞. 𝑐𝑚


= 𝑥100% = 90.69%
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑜𝑛 6√3 𝑠𝑞. 𝑐𝑚

Excerpts from Mathematics in the Modern World: Chapter 1 by R.Aufmann et. al


We can clearly see that using hexagons will cover a larger area than when using squares.

World Population
Mathematics can be used to model population growth. Recall that the formula for exponential
growth is A=Pert , where A is the size of the population after it grows, P is the initial number of
people, r is the growth rate, and t is time.
Example:
1. The exponential growth model A=30e0.02t describes the population of a city in the
Philippines in thousands, t years after 1995.
a. What is the population of the city in 1995?
b. What will be the population in 2017?
2. The exponential growth model A=50e0.07t describes the population of a city in the
Philippines in thousands, t years after 1997.
a. What is the population in 20 years?
b. What is the population in 2037?

The Fibonnaci Sequence


A sequence is an ordered list of numbers, called terms, that may have repeated values. The
arrangement of these terms is set by a definite rule.
The Fibonacci sequence starts with,
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ….., Fn
The sequence is named after the Italian Mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, who was better known
by his nickname Fibonacci. He is said to have discovered this sequence as he looked out how many
pairs of rabbits will be born in a year, with the assumption that a new pair of rabbits is born each
month and this new pair, in turn, gives birth to additional pairs of rabbits beginning at two months
after they were born.
Fibonacci sequence has many interesting properties. Among these is that this pattern is very visible
in nature. Some of nature’s most beautiful patterns, like the spiral arrangement of sunflower seeds,
the number of petals in a flower, and the shape of a snail’s shell all contain Fibonacci numbers.
The Golden Ratio is obtained by taking the ratios of successive Fibonacci numbers.
1
=1
1
2
=2
1
3
= 1.5
2
5
= 1.6667
3
8
= 1.600
5
13
= 1.6250
8

Excerpts from Mathematics in the Modern World: Chapter 1 by R.Aufmann et. al


Then you continue the operation for all successive Fibonacci numbers which converges to
approximately equal to 1.618, also denoted as
ᶲ
Examples:
1. Find F22=17,711 and F24=46,638, what is F23=?
2. Find the sum of the first 7 terms of the Fibonacci sequence.
Try to use this formula and find if it matches your answer to find the of nth-term for Fibonacci
sequence:

Try to use this formula and find if it matches your answer to find the of sum of n-terms for
Fibonacci sequence: S(n) = f(n+2) - 1

Excerpts from Mathematics in the Modern World: Chapter 1 by R.Aufmann et. al

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