MODULE 1: MATHEMATICS IN OUR WORLD

THE OVERVIEW

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 street, mathematics is there. This is one
subject thought as the sole objective languages that people in the modern world understand
each other.

The origin of mathematics can be traced to the history and significance of patterns and
numbers. It deals with ideas translated to objects and concepts created by humans. They are
invented to link the meaning of pattern which result experiences associated with the counting,
sequences and regularities.

MODULE OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, you must 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 expressed,
represented and used;
4. Discuss the role of mathematics in some disciplines and;
5. Express appreciation for mathematics as human endeavor.

Pattern in Nature and the Regularities in the World

Pattern 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

GEED 10053 – MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD

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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 patters do in nature.

What is Pattern?
Patterns are regular, repeated or recurring forms or designs. Patterns can be
sequential, spatial, temporal and even linguistic.

The most basic pattern is the sequence of the dates in the calendar such as 1 to
30 being use month after month; the seven (7) days in a week i.e. Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; the 12 months of the year i.e.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October,
November, and December. And the regular holidays in a year i.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 a repetition of
names or events called regularity.

Regularity (Collins, 2018) is the fact that the same thing always happens in the same
circumstances.

Pattern in Nature (Wikipedia) are visible regularities of form found in the natural world.
These patterns recur in different contexts and can sometimes be modeled
mathematically

Geometric Pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically

repeated like a wallpaper design.

IAN STEWART (1995) – according to him, we live in

a universe of patterns.

SOME EXAMPLES OF PATTERNS IN NATURE

1. 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.

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 2. SPIRAL is a curve which emanates from a point, moving
farther away as it revolves around the point. Cutaway of a
nautilus shell the chambers arranged in an approximately
logarithmic spiral.

3. 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.

4. WAVE is a disturbance that transfers energy through

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

5. 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 foam, 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”.

6. TESSELLATION of a flat surface is the tilling of a

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

7. 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 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.

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8. STRIPES are made by a series of bands or strips, often of the
same width and color along the length.

9. 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.

10. AFFINE TRANSFORMATION – these are the process of

rotation and scaling. Many plants forms utilize these processes to
generate their structure.

FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

Another one in this world involves pattern is the Fibonacci number (Grist, 2011). These
numbers are nature’s numbering system. They appear everywhere in nature, from left
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.

Try this Fibonacci sequence;

F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 F13

0 1 1 2 3 5 8

George Dvorsky (2013) highlighted that the famous Fibonacci sequence has captivated
mathematicians, artist, designer and scientists for centuries.

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 Leonardo Fibonacci came up with the sequence when calculating the ideal expansion
pairs of rabbits over the course of one year. Also known as Leonardo of Pisa.

Golden Ratio (symbol is the Greek Letter

“phi”) is a special number approximately equal to
1.618. It appears many times in geometry, art,
architecture and other areas

Here are some examples of nature that uses Fibonacci sequence

1. Seed heads of a sunflower
2. Pine cones “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry
3. Tree branches of logical ideas”.
4. Shell -Albert Einstein
5. Spiral Galaxies and Hurricane

Importance of Mathematics in Life

According to Katie Kim (2015), Math is 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 6. Doing exercise

2. Netflix film viewing 7. Handling Money
3. Calculating Bills 8. Making Countdowns
4. Computing test scores 9. Baking and Cooking
5. Tracking Career 10. Surfing Internet

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 its intellectual challenge.

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 1. Pattern and Relationship

Mathematics is the science of pattern and relationship. As a theoretical discipline,

mathematics explores the possible relationship among abstraction without
concern 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 question.

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
symbol such as numbers, letters, other marks, diagrams, geometrical
constructions, or even words.

5. Manipulating Mathematical Statements

After, abstraction have been made and symbolic representation of them have
been selected, those symbol can be combined and recombined in various ways
according to precisely define rules. Typically, strings of symbols are combined
into statements that express ideas or propositions.

6. Application

Mathematical processes can lead to a kind of model of a thing, from which

insights can be gained about the thing itself. Any mathematical relationships
arrived at by manipulating abstract statements may or may not convey something
truthful about the thing being modeled.

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 The Role of Mathematics in Some Discipline

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.

As posted by Angel Rathmabai (2014), Mathematics is not only number work or

computation, but is more about forming generalization, seeing relationships and developing
logical thinking and reasoning.

1. Mathematics in Physical Sciences 10. Mathematics and Logic

2. Mathematic sin Chemistry 11. Mathematics in Music
3. Mathematics in Biological Science 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 Linguistics
6. Mathematics and Economics 16. Mathematics in Political Science
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 Archaeology

Appreciating Mathematics as a Human Endeavor

In order to appreciate mathematics much better, every person should have the though
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 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:

Accountant

Assist businesses by working on their taxes and planning for upcoming years. They work
with tax codes and forms, use formulas for calculating interest and spend a considerable
amount of energy organizing paperwork.

Agriculturists

Determine the proper amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and water to produce bountiful
amounts of foods. They must be familiar with chemistry and mixture problems.

Architects

Design buildings for structural integrity and beauty. They must know how to calculate
loads for finding acceptable materials in design which involves calculus.

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 Biologist
Study nature to act in concert with it since we are very closely tied to nature. They use
proportions to count animals as well as use statistics/probability.

Computer Programmers

Create complicated sets of instructions called programs/software to help us use

computers to solve problems. They must have a strong sense of logic and have critical thinking
and problem solving skills.

Engineers

Build product/ structure/ systems like automobiles, buildings, computers, machines and
planes to name just a few examples. They cannot escape the frequent use of a variety of
calculus. Geologists use mathematical models to find oil and study earthquakes.

Lawyers

Argue cases using complicate lines of reason. That skill is nurtured by high level math
courses. They also spend a lot of time researching cases, which means learning relevant codes,
laws and ordinances. Building cases demands a strong sense of language with specific
emphasis on hypotheses and conclusion.

Managers

Maintain schedules, regulate worker performance and analyze productivity.

Medical Doctors

Must understand the dynamic systems of the human body. They research illnesses,
carefully administer the proper amounts of medicine, read charts/ tables and organize their
workload and manage the duties nurses and technicians.

Meteorologists

Forecast the weather for agriculturist, pilots, vacationers and those who are marine-
dependent. They read maps, work with computer models, and understand the mathematical
laws of physics.

Military Personnel

Carry out a variety of task ranging from aircraft maintenance to following detailed
procedures. Tacticians utilize a branch of mathematics called linear programming.

Nurses

Carry out the detailed instructions doctors given them. They adjust intravenous drip
rates, take vitals, dispense medicine and even assist in operations.

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 Politicians

Help solve the social problems of our time by making complicated decisions within the
confines of the law, public opinion and budgetary restraints.

Salespeople

Typically work on commission and operate under a buy low, sell high profit model. Their
job requires good interpersonal skills and the ability to estimate basic math problems without the
need of paper/pencil.

Technicians

Repair and maintain the technical gadgets we depend on like computers, televisions,
DVDs, cars, refrigerators. They always read measuring devices, referring to manuals and
diagnosing system problems.

Tradesmen

Estimate job costs and use technical math skills specific to their field. They deal with
slopes, areas, volumes, distances and must have an excellent foundation in math.

To realize the love for and interest in mathematics, Annenberg

Learner shared the following notes that mathematics is
everywhere and is always integral part of human endeavor.

How can math be so universal?

According to Annenberg Learner (2017), human being

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.

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 country you are in.

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 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.

ASSESSMENT TASK

A. Identification. Write the correct word on the blank that is being referred to in the
following.

1. A series of regular curves, bends, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of 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. The tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes with no overlaps and gaps.
_________________________

5. A curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the
point. ________________________

6. An agreement in dimensions, 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 two
preceding ones. _________________________

9. A series of bands or strips, often of the same width and color along the length.
______________________

10. The infinitely complex patterns that is self-similar across different scales.
______________________

B. Performance task.

1. Go to the garden or park, start counting leaves and petals. Write the result on this form:

Plant Name or Description: ___________________________

a. Do the leaves grow in spiral? (YES or NO) _______. What is the pattern
of the leaves?

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 b. Are there flowers? (YES or NO) ______. What is the arrangement of the
petals?

2. Look at the outer skin of a pineapple. How many designs are in the outer skin of it? Is
there a pattern? (YES or NO) ______. Justify your answer.

C. Submit 2-3 page synthesis paper focusing on one of the following aspects of
mathematics:

a. Mathematics helps organize patterns and regularities.

b. Mathematics helps predict the behavior of nature and phenomena in the world.
c. Mathematics helps control nature and occurrences in the world for our own ends.
d. Mathematics has numerous applications in the world making it indispensable.

Direction:
Save your work/ answer in a PDF format then upload it on the posted classwork in
Google classroom.

Note:
a. Use Arial as your font style
b. Font size is 11

GEED 10053 – MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD

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