GEC-MMW

Mathematics in the
Modern World

Stephanie Loise Tañedo

Intructor
 Lecture 01: Mathematics in our World
LESSON LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:

1) Identify patterns in nature and regularities in the world;

2) Articulate the importance of mathematics in your life;
3) Argue about the nature of mathematics, what it is, how it is expressed, represented,
and used; and
4) Express appreciation for mathematics as a human endeavor.
 Contents

Patterns and Numbers in Nature

1 and the World

2 Fibonacci Sequence

Appreciation of Numbers
3
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What is Mathematics?

“A formal system of thought for recognizing, classifying, and

exploiting patterns” (Stewart, 1995)

“The science that deals with the logic of shape, quantity and
arrangement” (Homer, 2013)

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1. Patterns and Numbers in
Nature and the World
Nothing in nature happens without a reason, all of these patterns
have an important reason to exist and they also happen to be
beautiful to watch.

In the general sense of the world, patterns are regular, repeated,

or recurring forms or design. We see patterns everyday.
Studying patterns help students in identifying relationships
and finding logical connections to form generalizations and
make predictions.
 Natural Patterns
Symmetries (Reflection,
Rotation, Translation)

Symmetry comes from a Greek word meaning

‘to measure’ and is widely used in the study
of geometry. Mathematically, symmetry
means that one shape becomes exactly like
another when you move it in some way: turn,
flip or slide. For two objects to be
symmetrical, they must be the same size and
shape, with one object having a different
orientation from the first. Not all objects
have symmetry; if an object is not
symmetrical, it is called asymmetric.

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 Natural Patterns
Spirals

A spiral is a curve which emanated from a

point, moving farther away as it revolves
around the point. In the natural world, we
find spirals in the DNA double helix,
sunflowers, weather patterns (including
hurricanes), galaxies, snail shells and many
more.

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 Natural Patterns
Foams or Bubbles

A foam is a substance made by trapping air or

gas bubbles inside a solid or liquid. Examples
of foams formed by gases in liquids include
sea foams, fire retardant foam, and soap
bubbles. Rising bread dough may be
considered a semisolid foam. Solid foams
include dry wood, polystyrene foam, memory
foam, and mat foams (as for camping and
yoga mats).

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 Natural Patterns
Tessellations (Tiling)

A tessellation is tiling that uses shapes to

cover a surface with no gaps or overlaps.
Picture a kitchen floor with tiles and you are
looking at a tessellation. They can be any
shape or any combination of shapes. And the
shape don’t have to follow a particular
pattern. And, tessellations don’t always have
to be flat. They can be three-dimensional.

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 Natural Patterns
Stripes and Spots

Stripes are made by series of bands or strips,

often of the same width and color along the
length. Nature’s love of stripes and spots
extends into the animal kingdom like tigers
and leopards, zebras and giraffes.

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 Natural Patterns
Fractals

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 on-going feedback loop. For
example: trees, rivers, broccoli, cauliflower,
blood vessels and snowflakes.

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 Key Concept:

Natural patterns are govern by some numerical rules

PATTERN NUMERICAL RULE

Sunflower seeds configuration Fibonacci sequence

Full moon occurrence 29.5-day cycle
Zebra stripes Turing’s model
Snowflakes Koch fractal curve
Logical Patterns

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Logical Patterns

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Logical Patterns

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Logical Patterns

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Geometric Pattern

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Number Patterns

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Number Patterns

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 Number Patterns

PASCAL’S TRIANGLE

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2. Fibonacci Sequence
Leonardo Fibonacci Leonardo Fibonacci

The Fibonacci sequence is usually

credited to its first European
appearance in a book called Liber
Abaci by Fibonacci (who is also
known as Leonardo Bonacci,
Leonardo of Pisa, Leonardo
Pisano Bigollo, or Leonardo A page of the
Fibonacci). Liber Abaci

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 The Fibonacci sequence was first posted by the famous puzzle
called the Rabbit Problem:

Suppose a newly-born pair of rabbits, one male, one female, are

put in a field. Rabbits are able to mate at the age of one month
so that at the end of its second month female can produce
another pair of rabbits. Suppose that our rabbits never die and
that the female always produces one new pair (one male, one
female) every month from the second month on. How many pairs
will there be in one year?

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Illustration:

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 The table below shows the number of pairs of rabbits there are in the nth month:

No. of months 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

No. of pairs 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144

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 Fibonacci Numbers

Definition:
The nth Fibonacci number 𝑓𝑛 is defined recursively as:
𝑓0 = 0;
𝑓1 = 1; and
𝑓𝑛 = 𝑓𝑛−1 + 𝑓𝑛−2
Example:
𝑓2 = 𝑓1 + 𝑓0 𝑓3 = 𝑓2 + 𝑓1 𝑓4 = 𝑓3 + 𝑓2 𝑓5 = 𝑓4 + 𝑓3
=1+0 =1+1 =2+1 =3+2
=1 =2 =3 =5

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Golden Ratio

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Golden Ratio

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Binet’s Formula

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 Binet’s Formula

Example:
Use Binet’s Formula to obtain the 10th Fibonacci number.

10 10
1 1+ 5 1− 5
𝑓10 = −
5 2 2
= 55

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Examples of Golden Ratio

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Examples of Golden Ratio

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Examples of Golden Ratio

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3. Appreciation of Numbers
 Numbers as Signs and Symbols

We look at numbers as signs or symbols used to represent magnitudes or

quantities. The idea of the signs and symbols was standardized and became
acceptable universally.

Numbers are used everyday to represent:

1. magnitudes,
2. quantities,
3. coding, and
4. others.

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 Numbers as Signs and Symbols

Numbers can be of different scales:

1. nominal,
2. ordinal,
3. interval, and
4. ratio.

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 Nominal Numbers

Nominal numbers refer to the characteristic or attribute of subjects or objects

that is used for naming, labeling, and categorizing only.

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 Nominal Numbers

Nominal numbers are used only for naming.

In the nominal scale, numbers lose their numerical value.
Operating these numbers do not make sense.
Examples are coding for:
 Cause of death
 Nationality
 Color of the eyes
 Religion
 Color of the skin
 Race
 Names

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 Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers refer to the characteristic of subjects or objects that is used for
ranking and ordering.

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 Ordinal Numbers

Ordinal numbers are used for ranking and ordering.

Everything that comes in orders or ranks are included in this classification.
Ranking can be done using first, second, up to nth place.
Operations with ordinal numbers usually do not make sense (although there
are special exceptions used for statistical purposes).

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 Interval Numbers

Interval numbers refer to the characteristic or attribute of subjects or objects

that is of known sizes or distances.

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 Interval Numbers

Interval numbers are mainly used for measurements.

They can be operated.
Examples include:
■ Temperature
■ Time
Units of measurements in this scale are arbitrary, and the number zero does
not mean “nothing” or an absence of the characteristic or attribute of the
subject or objects.

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 Ratio Numbers

Ratio numbers refer to the characteristic or attribute of subjects or objects that

contains the characteristic of the interval data but in this case, zero has a true
value.

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 Ratio Numbers

Ratio number has the characteristics of interval numbers.

Zero has a true value.
Examples include:
■ number or population of some objects
■ length
■ weight

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