MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD

Learning Outcomes

1. Identified patterns in nature and regularities in the world.

2. Articulated the importance of mathematics in one’s life.
3. Argued about the nature of mathematics, what it is, how it is expressed,
represented, and used.
4. Expressed appreciation for mathematics as a human endeavor.
1.1 The Nature of Mathematics
(Nocon and Nocon, 2018)
❑a study of patterns,
❑a language,
❑an art,
❑a process of thinking, and
❑ a set of problem-solving tools
A. PATTERNS AND NUMBERS IN
NATURE AND THE WORLD
A Pattern is a design that is repeated regularly in a
predictable manner.

A Motif is the original design element that is

repeated.
The four main types of symmetry operations
❑Translation
❑Rotation
❑Reflection
❑Glide reflection.
• The branching pattern of trees was described in the
Italian Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci. He stated
that: All the branches of a tree at every stage of its
height when put together are equal in thickness to the
trunk [below them].
• Fractals are infinitely self-similar, iterated
mathematical constructs having fractal dimension.
 θ
The 6 types of Spirals:
❑Archimedean Spiral, r = aθ
❑Hyperbolic Spiral, r = a/θ
❑Fermat’s Spiral, r = θ1/2
❑Logarithmic Spiral, r = θ-1/2
❑Lituus Spiral, r = a + bθ
❑Cornu, r2 = a2 θ
• A dynamical system is chaotic if it is highly sensitive to initial
conditions, which requires the mathematical properties of topological
mixing and dense periodic orbits.
• Vortex streets are zigzagging patterns of whirling vortices created by the
unsteady separation of flow of a fluid, most often air or water, over
obstructing objects. Smooth (laminar) flow starts to break up when the
size of the obstruction or the velocity of the flow become large enough
compared to the viscosity of the fluid.
• Meanders are sinuous bends in rivers or other channels, which form as
a fluid, most often water, flows around bends.
• Waves are disturbances that carry energy as they
move. Mechanical waves propagate through a medium
(air or water), making it oscillate as they pass by. Wind
waves are sea surface waves that create the
characteristic chaotic pattern of any large body of
water.
• Barchans or crescent dunes are produced by wind
acting on desert sand and behave like solitary waves.
• A soap bubble forms a sphere

• A foam is a mass of bubbles.

• Tessellations (tilings) are patterns
formed by repeating tiles all over a flat
surface which is common in arts and
designs, exactly repeating tiling are less easy
to find in living things.
•Cracks are linear openings that
form in materials to relieve
stress.
• Leopards and ladybirds are spotted; angelfish
and zebras are striped. These patterns have an
evolutionary explanation: they have functions
which increase the chances that the offspring of
the patterned animal will survive to reproduce.
One function of animal patterns is camouflage;
another function is signaling.
• Researchers at MIT have created a
scientifically rigorous analogy that shows
the similarities between the physical
structure of spider silk and the sonic
structure of a melody, proving that the
structure of each relates to its function in
an equivalent way.
• 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55,
89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, …
• "sneezewort":
1. Number of petals

Here is a passion flower (passiflora incarnata) from the back

and front:
• 2. arrangement of seeds on flower heads

coneflower (daisy) sunflower

• 3. arrangements of the leaves around their stem

African Violet Sunflower

• 1.3 MATHEMATICS HELPS ORGANIZE PATTERNS
AND REGULARITIES IN THE WORLD
• 1.4 MATHEMATICS HELPS PREDICT THE
BEHAVIOR OF NATURE AND THE WORLD
• 1.5 MATHEMATICS HELPS CONTROL NATURE
AND OCCURRENCES IN THE WORLD FOR OUR
OWN ENDS.
• 1.6 MATHEMATICS HAS NUMEROUS
APPLICATIONS IN THE WORLD MAKING IT
INDISPENSABLE.
•Thank you!!!