COURSE COURSE MATHEMATICS IN THE PRE- CREDIT 3

GE CS04
CODE TITLE MODERN WORLD REQUISITES UNITS
COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course deals with the nature of mathematics, appreciation of its practical, and intellectual and aesthetic dimensions
and applications of mathematical tools in daily life.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, student should have: discuss and argue about the nature of mathematics, what it is, how it is
expressed, represented, and used; use different types of reasoning to justify statements and arguments made about
mathematics and mathematical concepts; discuss the language and symbols of mathematics; use a variety of statistical
tools to process and manage numerical data; analyze codes and coding schemes used for identification, privacy, and
security purposes; use mathematics in other areas such as finance, voting, health and medicine, business, environment,
arts and design, and recreation; appreciate the nature and uses of mathematics in everyday life; affirm honesty and
integrity in the application of mathematics to various human endeavors.

Module Title THE NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

Module No. 1

Total Study Hours Lecture: 4.5 hours

Module Writer Julieta B. Montecillo

Module and Learning Julieta B. Montecillo

Facilitator/Contacts CP: 09171305366 / email: jmontecillo@gmail.com

Module Introduction
Module Learning Outcomes
Content
Teaching and Learning Activities
This module is concerned with the mathematics in our world. It provides a new way
of looking at mathematics as a science of patterns. Basically, it encapsulates the
entirety of the course by providing insights that mathematical structure is
embedded in the structure of the natural world.
At the end of this module, the students are expected to be able to:
• identify patterns in nature and regularities in the world;
• explain the importance of mathematics in one’s life; and
• express appreciation for mathematics as a human endeavor..
• Mathematics in Our World
• Fibonacci Numbers
• The Golden Ratio
In-person activity, video lesson, interactive discussion via Google meet.

In-person written examinations (includes short quizzes), homework

Assessment Methods
(individual/group), end-chapter problem sets, recitation.
 • Aufmann, Richard et. al. (2018). Mathematics in the Modern World
(Philippine Edition). Rex Book Store, Inc.
• Calubaquib, Medallon. (2018). Mathematics in the Modern World.
References / Readings Intramuros Manila, Philippines: Mindshapers Co., Inc.
• Sobecki, Dave (2019). Math in Our World 4th Edition (Philippine Edition). Mc
Graw Hill Education
• Ymas Jr., Sergio E. et. al. (2018). Mathematics for the Modern World 2018.
Ymas Publishing House.

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Module 1: THE NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

Introduction
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. For
others, including many scientists and engineers, the chief value of mathematics is how it applies
to their own work. Because mathematics plays such a central role in modern culture, some basic
understanding of the nature of mathematics is requisite for scientific literacy. To achieve this,
students need to perceive mathematics as part of the scientific endeavor, comprehend the nature
of mathematical thinking, and become familiar with key mathematical ideas and skills.

1.1 Mathematics in Our World

Have you ever wondered how well jeepney drivers give you your change when you hand
your fare? How about when you buy street food? Most food vendors do not make a mistake in
giving you your change after buying a grilled hotdog on a stick for example, without even using
calculators. Routine transactions like these, knowingly or unknowingly, are mathematics at work
because they involve computing numbers most of the time. How much time do you allot
travelling to avoid getting late for class? Before that, do you track every second you spend taking
the shower, eating breakfast, changing into school clothes, or preparing your things for school?
Most importantly, do you check if you still have enough money for fare, food, and other expenses
for school? Just like budgeting allowance, time is also mathematics at work. Are you watching
your weight and your food caloric intake? Do you read the nutrition information from the
packages of chocolates, cookies, candies, and drinks you buy? Consciously or unconsciously, all
of these activities engage some form of mathematics.
The heart of mathematics is more than just numbers, numbers which many supposed to be
meaningless and uninteresting. Have you ever gone for beach trips or did mountain climbing
perhaps and noticed in awe the beautiful world around you? The different shapes you see around,
the changing hues of the sky from sunrise to sunset, the clouds transforming from stratus to
cumulus, the contour of the rainbow in the horizon are all beautiful because of harmony. The
degree of changing hues of color has to be of exact measurement to appear pleasing and
harmonious to the human eye. “And it is mathematics that reveals the simplicities of nature, and
permits us to generalize from simple examples to the complexities of the real world. It took many
people from many different areas of human activity to turn a mathematical insight into a useful
product” (Stewart, 1995, pp. 71-72).
If you count the number of petals of most flowers, notice that they are either of one petal,
two petals, three petals, five petals, eight petals, or thirteen. This sequence of numbers form the
set {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, …} whose pattern was discovered by Fibonacci, a great European
mathematician of the Middle Ages. His full name in Italian is Leonardo Pisano, which means
Leonardo of Pisa, because he was born in Pisa, Italy around 1175. Fibonacci is the shortened word
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for the Latin term “filius Bonacci,” which stands for “son of Bonaccio.” His father’s name was
Guglielmo Bonaccio.
The German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler (known for his laws of
planetary motion) observed that dividing a Fibonacci number by the number immediately before
it in the ordered sequence yields a quotient approximately equal to 1.618. This amazing ratio is
denoted by 𝜑 called the Golden Ratio. Kepler once claimed that “[g]eometry has two great
treasures; one is the Theorem of Pythagoras; the other, the division of a line into extreme and
mean ratio. The first we may compare to a measure of gold, the second we may name a precious
jewel” (Stakhov and Olsen, 2009).
The Golden Ratio is so fascinating that proportions of the human body such as the face
follows the so called Divine Proportion. The closer the proportion of the body parts to the Golden
Ratio, the more aesthetically pleasing and beautiful the body is. Many painter, including the
famous Leonardo da Vinci were so fascinated with the Golden Ratio that they used it in their
works art.
The world and the whole universe is imbued with mathematics. “The Pythagoreans
believed that the nature of the universe was directly related to mathematics and that the whole
numbers and the ratios formed by the whole numbers could be used to describe and represent all
natural events’ (Aufmann, 2014). Can the course of natural events such as winning in a contest or
in a game of chance be actually explained? What is your chance of winning the lottery? Have you
ever heard of probabilities? Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) was a remarkable
mathematician who made many contributions to the mathematics of probabilities. An important
aspect of studying probabilities is the so called combinatorics, a mathematical fields pioneered by
Blaise Pascal, the mathematician whose famous Pascal’s Triangle finds useful application in
algebra and statistics.
Nature has its laws. These laws, such as the law of freely falling bodies, were laid down
by Isaac Newton. Newton and Gottfried Leibniz developed modern calculus in the 17th century.
This development would not have been possible without the Cartesian coordinate system-- the
fusion of geometry and algebra by Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Albert Einstein (1879-1955), who
made a name for his mass and energy equation, E = mc2, would not have gone farther in his theory
of relativity without mathematics. Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) a Polish chemist and
mathematician received the 1911 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing techniques of isolating
radioactive elements. Biological scientists have also recently used mathematics extensively to
theoretically investigate treatment procedures by modeling and simulating biological processes.
Without mathematics, all these inventions and discoveries are not possible.
The 20th century saw many breakthroughs in the fields of sciences and engineering which
creatively and critically employed mathematics. From the first personal computer named
Programma 101 that was released in 1965, to the first landing of man on the moon on July 20,
1969, and to the first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite launched in 1989 for military use,
all of these show that Mathematics plays a vital role in the affairs of humanity. Today, there are
24 GPS satellite in orbit helping people locate their travel destinations such as Google Maps or
Waze on personal computers, tablets, or smartphones.
Despite all these scientific achievements, many “millennials” are hesitant in taking science

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courses partly because they feel anxious of anything intimately connected with mathematics. The
interests of millennials in gadgets, games, and technologies that appeal to their senses have also
interfered with the study of mathematics and the sciences. Unknowingly however, these
technologies employ gadgets, to the instructions one places on the newly bought device which
operate based on mathematical logic.
Finally, Ian Stewart (1995) explains in his book Nature’s Numbers that mathematics is a
systematic way of digging out the rules and structures that lie behind some observed pattern or
regularity, and using these rules and structures to explain what is going on. Now, think of one of
the most loved animation characters Dora the Explorer. When Dora gets lost in the jungle, what
does she needs? A map. Thanks to Rene Descartes, who made the Cartesian map for without it,
Dora will may never find her way.
Mathematics is everywhere because it finds many practical applications in daily life. God,
the Mathematician Architect, designs everything in this universe to follow rules or formulas.
Whether following regular or irregular patterns, His creation benefits humankind, His greatest
masterpiece. As Johannes Kepler wrote, “Those laws [of nature] are within the grasp of the human
mind; God wanted us to recognize them by creating us after his own image so that we could share
in His own thoughts” (Stewart, 2020).

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 EXERCISES 1.1
NAME: SCORE:
SECTION: DATE:

Write an essay about how you use Mathematics in our world using the following guided
questions: (at least 100 words)
• What is mathematics for you?
• Where do you apply the principles of mathematics?
• Do you need mathematics every day? Why?
• What have you learned from school on mathematics so far?
• Do you appreciate mathematics? Why or why not?

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1.2 Fibonacci Numbers
Fibonacci observed numbers in nature. His most popular contribution perhaps is the
number that is seen in the petals of flowers. A calla lily flower has only 1 petal, euphorbia has 2,
trillium has 3, hibiscus has 5, cosmos flower has 8, corn marigold has 13, some asters have 21, and
a sunflower can have 34, 55, or 89 petals. Surprisingly, these petal counts represent the first ten
numbers of the Fibonacci sequence.

Not all petal numbers of flowers, however follow this pattern discovered by Fibonacci.
Some examples include the Brassicaceae family having four petals. Remarkably, many of the
flowers abide by the pattern observed by Fibonacci.
The principle behind the Fibonacci sequence is as follows:
• Let xn be the nth integer in the Fibonacci sequence, the next (n + 1)th term xn +1 is
determined by adding nth and the (n – 1)th integers.
• Consider the first few terms below: Let x1 = 1 be the first term, and x2 = 1 be the second
term, the third term x3 is found by x3 = x1 + x2 = 1 + 1 = 2.
• The fourth term x4 is 2 + 1 = 3, the sum of the third and the second term.
• To find the new nth Fibonacci number, simply add the two numbers immediately
preceding this nth number.
n = 3: x3 = 1 + 1 = 2 n = 6: x6 = 3 + 5 = 8 n = 9: x9 = 13 + 21 = 34
n = 4: x4 = 1 + 2 = 3 n = 7: x7 = 5 + 8 = 13
n = 5: x5 = 2 + 3 = 5 n = 8: x8 = 8 + 13 = 21

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 These numbers arranged in increasing order can be written as the sequence {1, 1, 2, 3, 5,
8, 13, 21, 24, 55, 89, …}.

Similarly, when we count the clockwise and counterclockwise spirals in the sunflower
seed, it is interesting to note that the numbers 34 and 5 occur—which are consecutive Fibonacci
numbers. Pineapples also have spirals formed by their hexagonal nubs. The nubs on many
pineapples form eight spirals that diagonally upward to the left and 13 that rotate diagonally
upward to the right, again these are consecutive Fibonacci numbers (Aufmann, 2015). The same
is also observed in the clockwise and counterclockwise spirals of a pine cone.

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 Another interesting pattern in nature is the honeycomb. According to Merriam-Webster
dictionary, “a honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal wax cells built by honeybees in their nest to
contain their brood and stores of honey.” But why build hexagonal cells? Why not squares? Jin
Akiyama, a Japanese mathematician, explains it well in an experiment made on his regular TV
show Jinjin Math. In the experiment, a student is asked to step on one mass made up of square
cells and the result is unbelievable! The mass with hexagonal cells resisted the weight of the
student while the mass with square cells was completely destroyed. It is amazing to know that
the mass made up of hexagonal cells is stronger than the one made up of square cells. Moreover,
these patterns exist naturally in the world.
Another interesting observation is the rabbit population beginning from a baby pair of the

first generation. Since it takes the first generation to mature before giving birth to an offspring,
there is an adult pair for the second generation, which is ready for reproduction. So, there are two
rabbit pairs, the parents and baby pairs, of the third generation. Next, the adult pair begets a baby
pair but the previous baby pair simply matures, so a family of three rabbit pairs for the fourth
generation exists, and so on. The number of total rabbit pairs at each generation constitutes a
Fibonacci sequence. Denoting by Fn the Fibonacci sequence of n generations is the set of Fibonacci
numbers {Fn}, that is:
{Fn} = {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, …}.
In particular, denote F1 = 1 for the 1st generation, F2 = 1 for the 2nd generation, F3 = 2 for the 3rd
generation, F4 = 3 for the 4th generation, and so on. It is interesting to point out that the Fibonacci
numbers Fn obey the following relationship:

𝐹1 = 𝐹2 = 1
{ }
𝐹𝑛 = 𝐹𝑛−1 + 𝐹𝑛−2 , 𝑛 ≥ 3

That is, Fn is given by the sum of the two previous Fibonacci numbers, 𝐹n-1 and 𝐹n-2, 𝑛 ≥ 3.

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For example: F3 = F2 + F1
F3 = 1 + 1
F3 = 2
It is also seen that F4 = F3 + F2 = 2 + 1 = 3 and F10 = F9 + F8 = 34 + 21 = 55.
Let us investigate the ratio of two adjacent Fibonacci numbers as n becomes large.
𝐹
The following tables gives values of the ratio 𝐹 𝑛 as n approaches ∞.
𝑛−1

It is interesting to note that the ratio of two adjacent Fibonacci numbers approaches the
𝐹
golden ratio; that is, 𝑛 = 1.6180339887 … as n becomes large. This is indeed a mystery. What
𝐹𝑛−1
does the golden ratio have to do with a rabbit population method?

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 EXERCISES 1.2
NAME: SCORE:
SECTION: DATE:

Identify at least 10 patterns and regularities in your surroundings by taking photos, describe each
by applying principles of mathematics.

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1.3 The Golden Ratio
The ratio of two consecutive Fibonacci numbers as n becomes
𝐹
large, approaches the golden ratio; that is lim 𝐹 𝑛 =
𝑛→∞ 𝑛−1
1.61808339887 … This can be verified by measuring some parts
of the human body: the length of the arm, height, the distance of
the fingertips to the elbow. According to Markowsky (1992), “the
ratio of a person’s height to the height of his or her navel is
roughly the golden ratio. We are not told why this is significant;
the navel is a scar of no great importance in an adult human
being.” You may verify this for yourself. Did you get a value close
to 1.6180339887 … ?

The ratio between the forearm and the hand also yields a value close to the golden ratio!

Another name for golden ratio is divine proportion. This must be so because human beauty is
based on the divine proportion. The photo on the next page illustrates the following golden ratio
proportions in the human face:

• center of pupil: bottom of teeth: bottom of

chin
• outer and inner edge of eye: center of nose
• outer edges of lips: upper ridges of lips
• width of center tooth: width of second
tooth
• width of eye: width of iris

The golden ratio denoted by 𝜑 is sometimes called the golden mean or golden section:
1 + √5
𝜑= = 1.6180339887
2
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 The golden ratio can be expressed as the ratio between two numbers, if the latter is also the
ratio between the sum and the larger of the two numbers. Geometrically, it can also be visualized as
a rectangle perfectly formed by a square and another by a square and another rectangle, which can
be repeated infinitely inside each section.

Suppose that a line segment is cut into two pieces of length: a and b. Below it is shown that a is
longer than b. Clearly, the length of the original segment is a + b.
𝑎 𝑎+𝑏
Now, two ratios are formed: 𝑏 and 𝑎 . The first is the ratio of the longer piece a to the
shorter piece b, and the second ratio is the whole length to the longer piece a. It is now ideal to
ask, when are the two ratios equal? This is an algebraic question that can be solved by equating
the two ratios:
𝑎 𝑎+𝑏
𝑏
= 𝑎
(1)

𝑎 𝑏
Simplifying the right side of equation (1), we get 𝑏 = 1 + 𝑎
𝑎
Denoting the ratio 𝑏 by 𝜑, we end up with
1
𝜑 =1+𝜑 (2)
On the other hand, dividing both the numerator and denominator of the right side if
equation (1) by b, we get
𝑎
𝑎 +1
𝑏
= 𝑎 (3)
𝑏
𝑏

𝑎 𝜑 +1 1
Which by writing 𝑏 = 𝜑 becomes 𝜑 = or 𝜑 = 1 + as in (2). Now, by multiplying both
𝜑 𝜑
sides of equation (2) by 𝜑, we get a quadratic equation

𝜑2 − 𝜑 − 1 = 0 (4)

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 Using quadratic root formula, we find two roots of equation (4); the first root is 𝜑 =
1.6180339887 …, and the second root is 𝜑 = −1.6180339887 ….The first root is the ratio of 𝜑 = 1.618
that we are looking for, and we ignore the second root because it is negative number. Hence, the
value we are looking for is
1 + √5
𝜑= = 1.6180339887 …
2

The golden ratio 𝜑 = 1.6180339887 … is a strange number. It is the only number that if
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you subtract one from it, 𝜑 − 1= 0.6180339887 …, you end up with its own reciprocal =
𝜑
0.6180339887 …
Shapes and figures that bear in the golden rectangle are generally considered to be aesthetically
pleasing. As such, the ratio is visible in many works of art and architecture such as in the Mona Lisa,
the Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Parthenon. In fact, the human DNA molecule also contains
Fibonacci umbers, being 34 ångstroms long by 21 ångstroms wide for each full cycle of the double
helix spiral. It is also visible the patterns of golden spiral in our nature.

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 EXERCISES 1.3
NAME: SCORE:
SECTION: DATE:

1. With your partner, measure each of the following:

• Height and height of navel
• Foot and hand length
• Length of forearm and length of hand
• Width of center tooth and width of second tooth
• Shoulder length and waistline

Are the results roughly the golden ratio? If not, what must be the ratios to get the golden ratio?

2. A wood that is 12 feet in length is needed to be cut into two parts such that the ratio of the
parts constitutes the golden ratio. What must be the lengths of the wood?

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