NATURE OF MATHEMATICS – PATTERNS AMONG NATURE

MATHEMATICS - It is formal system of thought for recognizing,

classifying, and exploiting of patterns.
➢ It is about:
• Numbers, symbols, Notations
• Operations, Equations, functions
• Process and thingification of processes.
➢ It is for:
• To help us unravel the puzzle of nature, a
useful way to think about nature.
• Organize patterns and regularities as well
as irregularities.
• To help us control weather and epidemics
• Provides new questions to think about.
➢ It is done with:
• With Curiosity
• With eagerness for seeking patterns and
generalizations
• With desire to know the truth
• With trial and error
• Without fear of facing more questions and
problems
➢ Used by:
• Mathematicians: pure and applied
• Scientist: natural and social
• Practically EVERYONE
➢ Importance in knowing it:
• It puts order in disorder.
• It helps us become better persons
• It helps us make the world a better place
to live on.
PATTERNS - Are regular, repeated or recurring forms or
designs.
➢ TWO TYPES OF PATTERNS:
a. FRACTALS - Are regular, repeated or
recurring forms or designs.
b. CHAOS - Are regular, repeated or
recurring forms or designs.
PYTHAGORAS - Are regular, repeated or recurring forms or
designs.
PLATO - Are regular, repeated or recurring forms or designs.
WAVES AND DUNES - clues to the flow of water, sand and air
MOTION OF STARS – confirms that the Earth rotates, and that
rotation was used by ancients to predict time
RAINBOWS – tells us the scattering of light, indirectly
confirming that raindrops are spheres

FIBONACCI SEQUENCE
- Named after Leonardo Pisano or Leonardo of Pisa, is a
series of numbers where a number is found by adding
the two numbers before it
- Shortened word for the Latin term “filiusBonacci”
meaning “son of Bonaccio”
GUGLIELMO BONACCIO
- Leonardo’s father that was a wealthy Italian merchant,
representing the Republic of Pisa trading in Bugia,
Algeria in North Africa
LIBER ABACI
- Book of calculation

CONDITIONS ASSUMED WITH A NEWBORN MALE AND FEMALE

RABBIT:
a. Rabbits reach sexual maturity after one month
b. The gestation period for a rabbit is one month
c. Female rabbit always give birth to one male and one
female rabbit every month
d. Rabbits do not die

• The Fibonacci numbers also occur as the sums of “shallow”

diagonals in Pascal’s triangle
• Fibonacci numbers is also a complete sequence where
every positive integer can be written as a sum of Fibonacci
number, where one number is used once at most
• The golden ratio often represented by a Greek letter phi
with a value of 1.618034 is also called the golden section
or the golden mean or divine proportion

MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE AND SYMBOLS

LOGICAL CONNECTIVES

QUANTIFIER:
1. Universal quantifier “for all” or “”for every”, denoted by

2. Existential quantifier “there exists” denoted by