1. Other patterns in nature can also be seen in the ball move and jellyfish(dihedral-D4 symmetry).

Radial
of mackerel, the v-formation of geese in the sky and symmetry is also evident in different kinds of
the tornado formation of starlings. flowers.

PATTERNS AND REGULARITIES

Mathematics is all around us. As we discover
more about our environment, we can mathematically
describe nature. The beauty of a flower, the majestic
tree, even the rock formation exhibits nature’s sense of
symmetry.
Have you ever thought about how nature likes 2. FRACTALS – a curve or geometric figure, each part
to arrange itself in patterns in order to act efficiently? of which has the same statistical character as the
Nothing in nature happens without a reason, all of whole. A fractal is a never-ending pattern found in
these patterns have an important reason to exist and nature. The exact same shape is replicated in a
they also happen to be beautiful to watch. process called “self similarity.” The pattern repeats
itself over and over again at different scales. For
TYPES OF PATTERNS example, a tree grows by repetitive branching. This
1. SYMMETRY – a sense of harmonious and same kind of branching can be seen in lightning
beautiful proportion of balance or an object is bolts and the veins in your body. Examine a single
invariant to any various transformations fern or an aerial view of an entire river system and
(reflection, rotation or scaling.) you’ll see fractal patterns.
a.) Bilateral Symmetry: a symmetry in which the
left and right sides of the organism can be divided
into approximately mirror image of each other
along the midline. Symmetry exists in living things
such as in insects, animals, plants, flowers and
others. Animals have mainly bilateral or vertical
symmetry, even leaves of plants and some flowers
such as orchids. 3. SPIRALS - A logarithmic spiral or growth spiral is a
self-similar spiral curve which often appears in
nature. It was first describe by Rene Descartes and
was later investigated by Jacob Bernoulli. A spiral is
a curved pattern that focuses on a center point and
a series of circular shapes that revolve around it.
Examples of spirals are pine cones, pineapples,
hurricanes. The reason for why plants use a spiral
form is because they are constantly trying to grow
b.) Radial Symmetry ( or rotational symmetry ): a but stay secure.
symmetry around a fixed point known as the center
and it can be classified as either cyclic or dihedral.
Plants often have radial or rotational symmetry, as
to flowers and some group of animals. A five-fold
symmetry is found in the echinoderms, the group in
which includes starfish (dihedral-D5 symmetry), sea
urchins and sea lilies. Radial symmetry suits
organism like sea anemones whose adults do not

MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN WORLD by PMSJR Page 1