The Nature of Mathematics: Mathematics in Our World

Introduction
Have you ever asked yourself where all mathematics come from? Is it
invented or discovered?
We cannot deny the fact that these days, more mathematics become part of
our daily lives. We feel the need to be cautious of our ways because we hear
news about increasing Covid-19 cases in our country and even in our locality.
Numbers that are presented to us daily become so powerful that they are
used as bases for decisions and actions of our leaders to prevent Covid-19 cases
from increasing.
What we gave as an example is just one of the many mathematics that we
encounter daily. During this very challenging time, we believe that everyone
would value mathematics and would want to know more about it.
For the first section, we will learn about mathematics as a useful way of
thinking about nature and the world. We hope that after this part, you will
understand mathematics as not merely a set of formulas but as a source of
relevant information that can help us in dealing with our daily lives.
Learning Outcome
At the end of this section, expect that you will be able to
a. identify patterns in nature and regularities in the world,
b. articulate the importance of mathematics in your life,
c. argue about the nature of mathematics, what it is, how it is expressed,
represented and used, and
d. express appreciation for mathematics as a human endeavor.
What You Need to Know
Mathematics is a broad system of study. Not one mathematician can define
what mathematics is. If you happen to see the picture of an elephant and the
six blind men, the picture somewhat describes what mathematics is. In the
picture, we view the elephant as mathematics and the six men represent the
mathematicians.

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 Figure 1
Six blind men and an elephant

Each of the six blind men did a good job in describing what they have
sensed. We cannot say that they incorrectly described each part since what they
touched was only part of the whole. The same can be observed in mathematics.
The mathematics that can be described by one mathematician is just a small
part of the whole thing.

Getting to Know Mathematics

What is Mathematics?

The simplest mathematical objects are numbers, and the simplest of

nature's patterns are numerical. The phases of the moon make a complete cycle
from new moon to full moon and back again every twenty-eight days. The year
is roughly three hundred and sixty-five days long. People have two legs, cats have
four, insects have six, and spiders have eight. Starfish have five arms (or ten,
eleven, even seventeen, depending on the species).

A very curious pattern indeed occurs in the petals of flowers. In nearly all
flowers, the number of petals is one of the numbers that occur in the strange
sequence 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89. For instance, lilies have three petals,
buttercups have five, many delphiniums have eight, marigolds have thirteen,
asters have twenty-one, and most daisies have thirty-four, fifty-five, or eighty-
nine. You don't find any other numbers anything like as often. There is a definite
pattern to those numbers: each number is obtained by adding the previous two

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numbers together. For example, 3 + 5 = 8, 5 + 8 = 13, and so on. Some examples
are given in Figure 2.

Figure 2
Different flowers with corresponding petal count

The same numbers can be found in the spiral patterns of seeds in the head
of a sunflower. This particular pattern was noticed many centuries ago and has
been widely studied ever since, but a really satisfactory explanation was not
given until 1993.

A sunflower seed illustrates that the number of clockwise spirals is 34 and

the number of counterclockwise spirals is 21, where 21 and 34 are two
consecutive numbers in the given sequence.

Figure 3
Spiral patterns of sunflower seed arrangement

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 Pinecones also illustrate the number of clockwise and counterclockwise
spirals. Figure 4 shows the numbers 8 and 13.

Figure 4
Spiral pattern in a pinecone

With these few examples, we must understand that human mind and
culture had long developed a formal system for classifying, recognizing, and
exploiting patterns. We call it mathematics. Patterns observed paved the way for
the origin of counting, the discovery and creation of geometric patterns, wave
patterns in water and on land, patterns of movement, and fractals: the new
science of irregularity; a never-ending pattern.
Figure 5 shows other patterns and regularities in nature.

Figure 5
Different patterns in nature

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 One of the most frequently occurring patterns in nature is the Fibonacci
sequence. It is a sequence of numbers starting with 1, then followed by 1, and
then followed by the sum of 1 and 1 which is 2, followed by the sum of 1 and 2,
which 3 and so on. The sequence is given by

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, …

Leonardo of Pisa, also known as Fibonacci (c. 1170–1250), is one of the best-
known mathematicians of medieval Europe. In 1202, after a trip that took him
to several Arab and Eastern countries, Fibonacci wrote the book Liber Abaci.
This book contains a problem created by Fibonacci that concerns the birth rate
of rabbits. Here is a statement of Fibonacci’s rabbit problem.

At the beginning of a month, you are given a pair of newborn

rabbits. After a month the rabbits have produced no offspring;
however, every month thereafter, the pair of rabbits produces
another pair of rabbits. The offspring reproduce in exactly the
same manner. If none of the rabbits dies, how many pairs of
rabbits will there be at the start of each succeeding month?

The solution of this problem is a sequence of numbers that we now call the
Fibonacci sequence.

Figure 6
Rabbit reproduction modeled by the Fibonacci sequence

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 The same sequence models what we previously discussed on petal counts
and pinecones and sunflower.
Where is mathematics?
Try to look around you. You will see that nature is filled with patterns.
Thus, mathematics works around us and we see it in clues and hints in nature.
In our daily routine, we follow a pattern of the things we normally do. In people,
communities, and events, we can observe many different patterns.
We are used to some patterns around us that if that pattern is changed,
things may be strange or exceptional. If somebody walks at a rhythm of left-left-
right-right, we consider it strange to move that way since we are used to walking
with a left-right-left-right pattern. If a tree bears an exceptionally large fruit,
they may treat this as a special phenomenon. Here, we see that there is deep-
seated belief that exceptions to patterns are special.
During this pandemic, we feel strange because some of the patterns we used
to observe have changed. Still, we need to get used to the new and arising pattern
brought about by changes in nature and our surroundings.
What is mathematics for?
Nature is full of patterns, most of which are things of beauty. Thus, we
cannot help but sit back and admire them. However, each nature’s pattern is
believed to be a puzzle that needs to be analyzed.
Mathematics makes it possible to solve these puzzles because of its
systematic way of digging out the rules and structures that lie behind these
puzzles of nature. It has a way of organizing patterns, regularities, and
irregularities. It is able to predict or even control weather, epidemics and it
provides tools for calculations. Because of mathematics’ ability to exploit
patterns, it can even provide more questions to think about.
What is mathematics about?
When we hear the word mathematics, we usually relate it to numbers. It is
true because numbers are the heart of mathematics. But this is just a small
part of mathematics. We will discuss some important aspects of mathematics.
We start off discussing numbers.

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