Math in the

Modern World

GE MATH 1
 Getting to Know Mathematics

• What is it? • Where is it?

• How is it done? • What is it about?

• What is it for? • Who uses mathematics?

Mathematics is defined as...
• study of numbers and arithmetic operations

• set of tools that can be used to answer questions

involving quantities
• a science that involves logical reasoning, drawing
conclusions from assumed premises and strategic
reasoning based on accepted rules, laws and probabilities

• an art which studies patterns, a specialized language that

deals with form, size and quantity
 A set of
problem
solving
tools..

A
Art
language
Mathematics
is…

A
A study
process
of
of
patterns
thinking
 “We have developed a formal system of thought for
recognizing, classifying, and exploiting patterns called
mathematics” (Stewart, p.1.)

• origins of counting

• geometric patterns
• wave patterns in water and land
• patterns of movement

• fractals, the new sciences of irregularity

- a never ending pattern
 What is Mathematics?

– Mathematics today is much more than Algebra and Geometry.

✓ It has evolved from just performing calculations or deduction
into...

❖ revealing patterns that help individuals to better

understand the world
❖ estimating results ❖ testing
❖ modeling natural
data management & conjectures,
phenomenon including
measurements human behavior & social
systems
 Where is Mathematics?

We see hints or clues of it:

❖in nature ❖in our daily routine

❖in our work ❖in people and

communities
❖in events
 What is Mathematics for?

❑to help us unravel the puzzles of nature, a useful way to

think about nature
❑to organize/describe regularities & irregularities
❑to be able to predict ❑to provide tools for calculations
❑to help us perform daily tasks ❑to get things done
❑to provide new questions to think about
 What is Mathematics for?

o to put order in disorder

o to help us become better o to help make the

person world a better place to
live in
o help us make decisions
like buying wisely, o choosing the most
appropriate insurance
plan,
o or even betting on a game
 What is Mathematics About?

❖Numbers, symbols, notations

❖Operations, equations and functions

❖Process and “trinification” of processes (abstractions)

❖Proof - a story rather than a sequence of statements
 How is Mathematics Done?

➢ with curiosity because they can be directly related to

human experiences
➢with a penchant for seeking patterns and
generalities
➢with a desire to know the truth ➢without fear of facing
more questions and
➢with trial and error problems to solve
 Who Uses Mathematics?

❖Mathematicians: pure and applied

❖Scientists: natural and social
❖Practically everyone

“But different people use different mathematics at different times for

different purposes, using different tools with different attitudes”.
Section 1.1: Patterns and Numbers in
Nature and the World
– Mathematics & Nature.pptx
– ..\..\Downloads\Nature by Numbers.mp4
 TYPES OF PATTERNS IN NATURE

– ARE VISIBLE REGULARITIES OF FORM FOUND IN

THE NATURAL WORLD
– THESE PATTERNS RECUR IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS
AND CAN SOMETIMES BE MODELLED
MATHEMATICALLY
– A Study of Patterns.pptx
1) SYMMETRY - Is pervasive in living things

➢ Animals mainly have bilateral or mirror symmetry

➢ Leaves of plants and some flowers such as Orchids
➢ Plants often have radial or rotational symmetry

Examples:
▪Sea Anemones
▪Echinoderms
▪Starfish
▪Sea urchins
▪Sea lilies
 Starfish

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

 2) TREES, FRACTALS

– Are infinitely self-seminar, iterated mathematical constructs have fractal

dimension (approximate)
Examples:
• Ferns
• Corals
• River networks
• Animal coloration
• Snow flakes, etc.
 Ferns

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

 snowflakes

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-

ND

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

 3) SPIRALS

➢ Such arrangements in mollusks, sunflower seed heads or structure of

a pineapple fruit are called spirals.
➢ Some of these spirals can be generated mathematically from
Fibonacci ratios (sequence)
Examples:
• When leaves alternate up a stem, one rotation of the spiral touches two
leaves, so the pattern or ratio is a Fibonacci ratio
• Hazel – ratio is 1/3
• Apricot – ratio is 2/5
• Pear – ratio is 3/8
• Almond – ratio is 5/13
➢Sunflower and daisy, the florets are arranged in
Fermat’s spiral with Fibonacci numbering
➢Fibonacci ratios approximate the golden angle,
137.5080, which governs the curvature of Fermat’s
spiral
the sunflower
the flower petals
 4) CHAOS, FLOW, MEANDERS

– In mathematics, a dynamical system is chaotic if it is (highly)

sensitive to initial conditions (the so called “butterfly effect”)
which requires the mathematical properties of topological
mixing and dense periodic orbits.
Examples
• Clouds formation
• Shell of mollusk
• Brain coral
 Clouds formation

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

the snail’s shell
 5) WAVES, DUNES

– Are disturbances that carry energy as they move

Example
• Breaking wave in a ship’s wake
• Sand dunes in a desert
• Wind ripples with dislocations
 Breaking wave

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

 6) BUBBLES, FOAM

– Soap bubble – form a sphere. Two bubbles together form a more

complex shape, the other surfaces are spherical; these surfaces are
joined by a third spherical surface as the smaller bubble bulges
slightly into the lighter one
– Foam – a mass of bubbles
 Soap bubbles

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

 7) TESSELLATIONS

➢ Patterns formed by repeating tiles all over a flat surface

➢ Common in art and design

Example
• Honeycomb
• Crystals
• Snake fruits
• Tessellated pavement of a rare rock formation
honeycomb
 8) CRACKS

– Linear openings that form in materials to relieve stress

– The pattern of cracks indicates whether the material is elastic or not

Example
• Drying inelastic mud
• Old pottery surface
• Palm trunk
 Drying inelastic mud

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

 9) SPOTS, STRIPES

– These patterns have an evolutionary explanation: camouflage,

signaling, survival, etc.
Example
• Leopard
• Zebras
• Butterfly
• Royal angelfish
• Ladybirds
• Cuttlefish
 tiger’s stripes

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

 hyena’s spots

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
 10) PATTERN FORMATION

– These patterns formed out of reaction-diffusion system, vegetated

landscape, fissured pattern, and fir waves

Example
• Human brain
• Putter fish
• Fairy circles
• Patterned ground
• Guineafowl
 Human brain

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

 the world’s population

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

A Study of
Patterns
 Pattern
– An arrangement which helps observers anticipate what they might see or
what happens next.
– It shows what may have come before
– It organizes information so that it becomes more useful

Human mind is programmed to make sense of data or to bring order where

there is disorder
– Seeks to discover relationships and connections between seemingly
unrelated bits of information.
Example 1: Logic Patterns
Answer: d
Example 2: Number Patterns

• Ex. 1
– Ex.1 • 9,3
• 32, 6
Observe the pattern and fill in the blanks. • Ex. 2
• 4, 16, 40
– 18, 3, 15, 3, 12, 3, ( ), ( ).
– 1, 2, 2, 4, 3, 8, 4, 16, 5, ( ), ( ).
– Ex.2
Observe the following triples:
– (1, 4, 10), (2, 8, 20), (3, 12, 30), … ,
Example 3: Geometric Patterns
 Example 4: Word Patterns

– Knife : knives
– Life: lives
– Wife: Wives
 Exercises:

– Answer: C
 Exercises:

Answer: 3: c; 4:c
Exercises: Answer: a
Exercises:

Answer: C
Exercises:

– Answer: d
Exercise:

Answer: d
Number Patterns:
Systemizing
Patterns
through
Mathematics

Section 2
The Fibonacci Sequence
& The Golden Ratio
 Sequence
– An ordered list of numbers, called terms that may have repeated
values. The arrangement of these terms is set by a definite rule.
– Example 1: Analyze the given sequence for its rule and identify the
next three terms.
– A. 1, 10, 100, 1000
– B. 2, 5, 9, 14, 20
The Fibonacci Sequence
The Fibonacci Sequence

–
 Find a Fibonacci Number

–Use the definition of Fibonacci numbers to find the seventh and

eighth Fibonacci numbers.

Solution: The first six Fibonacci numbers are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. The

seventh Fibonacci number is the sum of the two previous Fibonacci
numbers.

–Thus, F7 = F6 + F5
=8+5

= 13
 Example 3 – Solution
cont’d

–The eighth Fibonacci number is

F8 = F7 + F6
= 13 + 8
= 21
 The Fibonacci Sequence can
be written as a "Rule" .
– First, the terms are numbered from 0 onwards like this:

n= 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 ...
Fib(n) = 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 ...

So term number 6 is called Fib(6) (which equals 8).

Find Fib(15)?

𝐹𝑖𝑏 15 = 𝐹𝑖𝑏 13 + 𝐹𝑖𝑏 14 = 233 + 277 = 610

 The Golden Ratio
…in mathematics and the arts, two quantities are
in golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio
of their sum to the larger of the two quantities.
– The Golden ratio is a special number found by dividing a line into two parts so that the longer
part divided by the smaller part is also equal to the whole length divided by the longer part. It
is often symbolized using phi, after the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. In an equation form,
it looks like this:
𝒂 𝒂+𝒃
– = = 1.6180339887498948420 …
𝒃 𝒂

Where: a>b>0
 The Golden Ratio
When we take any two successive (one after the other) Fibonacci
Numbers, their ratio is very close to the Golden Ratio"φ" which is
approximately 1.618034...
In fact, the bigger the pair of Fibonacci Numbers,
the closer the approximation. Let us try a few:

A B B/A

2 3 1.5

3 5 1.666666666..

5 8 1.6

8 13 1.625

It takes longer to get good values, but it shows that not just the Fibonacci Sequence can do this!
 n= 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 ...
Fib(n) = 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 ...

Find the ratio of Fib(13) and Fib(14)?

𝐹𝑖𝑏 (14) 377

= = 1.6108025761
𝐹𝑖𝑏 (13) 233
– Golden ratio is often symbolized by the Greek letter
phi ( φ ). It is the number =1.6180339887498948420
…
1+ 5
– And the irrational number
2
History
– Fibonacci was not the first to know about the sequence, it was known in India
hundreds of years before!
– His real name was Leonardo Pisano Bogollo, and he lived between 1170 and 1250
in Italy.
– "Fibonacci" was his nickname, which roughly means "Son of Bonacci".
– As well as being famous for the Fibonacci Sequence, he helped spread Hindu-Arabic
Numerals (like our present numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) through Europe in place
of Roman Numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, etc).
– That has saved us all a lot of trouble!

Fibonacci Day is November 23rd, as it has the digits "1, 1, 2, 3" which
is part of the sequence. So next Nov 23 let everyone know!
Example: The Parthenon
Seurat’s The Mona
Bathers Lisa
The Vitruvian Man
Leonardo da Vinci has
incorporated geometry in
many of his paintings, with
the golden ratio being one of
his many mathematical
tools. Experts agree that he
probably thought the golden
ratio made his paintings
more attractive.
 Activity:

– The Golden Ratio and the Human Body

– Measure the following:
– Distance from the ground to your navel.
– Distance from your navel to the top of your head
– Distance from the ground to your knees
– Length of your hand
– Distance from your wrist to your elbow
– Distances A, B and C as indicated in the figure
– Now, calculate the following ratios and write the results in the table:

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑛𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙

– 1.
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑛𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑛𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙

– 2.
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑠

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑤

– 3.
𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑

Students’ Ratio 1 Ratio 2 Ratio 3 Ratio 4 Ratio 5

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐶 Name
– 4.
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐵
Juan
Jane
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐵
– 5.
𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝐴

Can you see anything special about the ratios?

 Human anatomy

–
"φ" Is exhibited in both human physique and facial dimensions:

a. The width of the face and the length of the face

b. The width of the nose and the length of the mouth
c. The little finger and the middle finger
d. The human lung is divided into sections based on the golden ratio
e. The eardrum consist of chambers that are located at approximately golden ratio to optimize
sound regulation and vibrations
f. The ratio of systolic and diastolic pressure is ideally 1.6, a close approx. of the golden ratio
g. The helix spirals of the DNA molecule is configured at 34 angstroms and 21 angstroms, two
consecutive Fibonacci’s number whose ratio is close to "φ“.
The width of the face and the
length of the face
The width of the nose and the
length of the mouth
The little finger and the middle
finger
The human lung is divided into
sections based on the golden ratio
The eardrum consist of chambers
that are located at approximately
golden ratio to optimize sound
regulation and vibrations
The helix spirals of the DNA
molecule