Mathematics

in Nature
• Patterns and Numbers in Nature and the
World
• Fibonacci Sequence
• Patterns and Regularities
• Behaviour of Nature
• Applications of Mathematics in the World
Patterns and Numbers in Nature and the
World
• Patterns in nature are visible regularities of form found in the
natural world and can also be seen in the universe.
• Nature patterns which are not just to be admired, are vital clues
to the rules that govern natural processes.
• The development of new mathematical theories begins to reveal
the secret of nature’s patterns.
Patterns and Numbers in Nature and the
World
• Patterns can be observed even in stars which move in circles across
the sky each day. All snowflakes contain six-fold symmetry which
no two are exactly the same. There are evidences by
mathematicians that hexagonal snowflakes have an atomic
geometry of ice crystals.
• Fish and animals patterns attest to mathematical regularities in
biological growth and forms. These evolutionary and functional
arguments explain why these animals need their patterns.
Patterns and Numbers in Nature and the
World
• Natural patterns like the intricate waves across the oceans; sand
dunes on desert; formation of typhoon; water drop with ripple;
and the like serves as clues to the rules that govern the flow of
water, sand, and air.
Fibonacci Sequence

• Around 1200 AD when Pizano or Leonardo of Pisa (1170-

1250) published the Liber Abbaci, or “Book of Calculations”,
an arithmetic text which concentrate mainly on financial
computations and promotes the use of Hindu – Arabic
Numerals – the forerunner of today’s familiar system, which
uses just ten digits to represent all possible numbers.
Fibonacci Sequence

• One of the exercises in his book is:

“A man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all
sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits are produced from that
pair in a year, if it is supposed that every month each pair
produces a new pair, which from the second month onwards
becomes productive?”
Fibonacci Sequence

The Rabbit Habit

Number of Number of
Solid Figures
Months Pairs
1 1
2 1
3 2
4 3
5 5
6 8
Fibonacci Sequence

• Leonardo of Pisa also known as Fibonacci

discovered a sequence of numbers that created an
interesting pattern the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 13,
21, 34 … each number is obtained by adding the
last two numbers of the sequence forms what is
known as golden rectangle a perfect rectangle.
Fibonacci Sequence

• A golden rectangle can be broken into squares the size

of the next Fibonacci number down and below. If we
were to take a golden rectangle, break it down to
smaller square based from Fibonacci sequence and
divide each with an arc, the pattern begins to take
shapes, in which we can see in nature.
Examples of Fibonacci in Nature

• Seed Heads
Examples of Fibonacci in Nature

• Pine Cones
Examples of Fibonacci in Nature

• Tree Branches
Examples of Fibonacci in Nature

• Shells
Examples of Fibonacci in Nature

• Spiral
Galaxies
and
Hurricanes
Examples of Fibonacci in Nature

• Bees Reproduction