NATURE OF MATHEMATICS

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.

There are creative tensions in mathematics between beauty and utility,

abstraction and application, between a search for unity and a desire to treat
phenomena comprehensively. Keith Devlin has called mathematics a "science
of patterns", which ties in with the ideas of beauty, abstraction and the search
for unity. He has also said that "mathematics makes the invisible visible",
referring to representation, modeling and application of mathematics. For
example, drawing a bar graph makes statistical information visible.

Special characteristics of mathematics are the clarity and precision of

definitions, including usage of words in ways that differ from their use in
everyday language, and the certainty of mathematical truth based on
deductive mathematical reasoning. Given what Wigner call the "unreasonable
effectiveness of mathematics", all students should learn the basic nature of
mathematics and mathematical reasoning and its use in organizing
and modeling natural phenomena. In the practice of mathematics, typically
some concepts and statements are taken as given. They may be applied
or serve as the foundation for the development of further mathematics.
Additional concepts can be defined carefully in terms of the given ones.
Conjectures can be developed on the basis of experience with examples.
Further, statements can be proved deductively based on what has been
assumed. This process has been repeated extensively, resulting in
mathematics having its own intricate structure, with concepts and areas of
specialization that require considerable time and study to grasp. Moreover,
mathematics is interconnected in many interesting ways.

It may be useful [Swafford 1997] to think of students learning

mathematics along the lines of a generalized structure of reasoning based on
the van Hiele levels developed in the 1950s [Van Hiele 1986]: (1) recognition,
(2) analysis, (3) informal deduction, (4) formal deduction, (5) axiomatics.

Chapter 1

Mathematics in our World

The heart of mathematics is more than just numbers, numbers

which many supposed to be meaningless and uninteresting. Have you gone
for beach trips or did mountain climb perhaps and notice in awe the beautiful
world around you? The different shapes you see around you, 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).

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 law of nature is 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,2010)
Mathematics is the cradle of all creations, without which the world cannot
move an inch.be it a cook or a farmer, a carpenter or a mechanic, a
shopkeeper or a doctor, an engineer or a scientist, a musician or a magician,
everyone needs a mathematics in their day-to-day life. Even insects use
mathematics in their everyday life for existence.

General Objectives:

At the end of this chapter, the students can:

1. discuss and argue about the nature of mathematics;

2. expressed the nature of mathematics, how it is represented, and the
use of it;
3. discuss the language and symbol of mathematics;
4. apply different types of reasoning to justify statement and arguments
about mathematics; and
5. apply strategies in for effective problem solving;

Lesson 1. Mathematical Pattern and Numbers in Nature

Sequences and patterns arise naturally in many real-life

situations. Pattern is a form or model proposed for imitation that serve to
construct. In the case of sequence, Sequence is an organize object and
mathematics is the science of patterns and relationships. As a theoretical
discipline, mathematics explores the possible relationships among
abstractions without concern for whether those abstractions have
counterparts in the real world. The abstractions can be anything from strings
of numbers to geometric figures to sets of equations. In addressing, say,
"Does the interval between prime numbers form a pattern?" as a theoretical
question, mathematicians are interested only in finding a pattern or proving
that there is none, but not in what use such knowledge might have. In
deriving, for instance, an expression for the change in the surface area of any
regular solid as its volume approaches zero, mathematicians have no interest
in any correspondence between geometric solids and physical objects in the
real world.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, the students can identify nature that exhibit
different patterns and regularities in the world.

______________________________________________________________

Patterns in nature are visible regular forms found in the natural world.
The patterns can sometimes be modeled mathematically and they include
symmetries, trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks and
stripes.

Pattern are regular, repeated, or recurring forms or designs. Patterns

are commonly observed in natural objects such as the six-fold symmetry of
snowflakes the hexagonal structure and formation of honeycomb, the tiger’s
stripes, and hyena’s spots, the number of seeds in a sun flower, a spiral of a
snail’s shell, and the number of petals of flowers.

Symmetry

There are many objects in nature that are symmetrical. The face and
the body of a human being is symmetric. The left and the right wings of the
butterfly is symmetrical. Why is this so? Imagine a vertical line from the top of
the head down to the chin of the face. The distance of each point on the right
side of the façade to this imaginary vertical line is exactly the same as the
distance of each point on the left side. Animals mainly have bilateral or
mirror symmetry, as do the leaves of plants and some flowers such as
orchids. Animals that move in one direction necessarily have upper and lower
sides, head and tail ends, and therefore a left and a right. The head becomes
specialized with a mouth and sense organs (cephalization), and the body
becomes bilaterally symmetric (though internal organs need not be).
 Plants often have radial or rotational symmetry, as do many flowers
and some groups of animals such as sea anemones. Rotational symmetry is
also found at different scales among non-living things including the crown-
shaped splash pattern formed when a drop falls into a pond, and both the
spheroidal shape and rings of a planet like Saturn. Radial symmetry suits
organisms like sea anemones whose adults do not move: food and threats
may arrive from any direction.

Bilateral or Mirror Symmetry is a form of symmetry in which the

opposite sides along a midline is a duplicate of the other in terms of body
parts or appearance. A mirror symmetry operation is an imaginary operation
that can be performed to reproduce an object.  The operation is done by
imagining that you cut the object in half, then place a mirror next to one of the
halves of the object along the cut.  If the reflection in the mirror reproduces the
other half of the object, then the object is said to have mirror symmetry.   The
plane of the mirror is an element of symmetry referred to as a mirror plane,
and is symbolized with the letter m.  As an example, the human body is an
object that approximates mirror symmetry, with the mirror plane cutting
through the center of the head, the center of nose and down to the groin.
 Rotational or Radial Symmetry

Rotational Symmetry is where there is a center point and numerous

lines of symmetry could be drawn. If you rotate the spiderwort and starfish
above by several degrees, you will still achieve the same appearance as the
original position. this is known as rotational symmetry. The smallest that a
figure can be rotated while still preserving the original formation is called the
angle of rotation.

A more common way of describing rotational symmetry is by order of

rotation.
 Threefold Rotational Symmetry

An object that repeat themselves upon rotation of 120 o are said to have
a 3-fold axis of rotational symmetry (360/120 =3), and they will repeat 3 times
in a 360o rotation.  A filled triangle is used to symbolize the location of 3-fold
rotation axis.

Fourfold Rotational Symmetry

 If an object repeats itself after 90 o of rotation, it will repeat 4 times in a
360o rotation, as illustrated previously.  A filled square is used to symbolize
the location of 4-fold axis of rotational symmetry.

Fivefold Rotational Symmetry

An object that repeat themselves upon rotation of 120 o are said to have
a 3-fold axis of rotational symmetry (360/120 =3), and they will repeat 3 times
in a 360o rotation. For the spiderwort, the angle of rotation is 120 0 while the
angle of rotation for the baby starfish is 72 0.
 Sixfold Symmetry

If rotation of 72o about an axis causes the object to repeat itself, then it
has 5-fold axis of rotational symmetry (360/7= 5).  A filled hexagon is used as
the symbol for a 5-fold rotation axis. 
STRIPS

Stripes is a long, narrow band, mark, or streak, differing in color,

texture, or material from the surrounding area. Pattern are also exhibited in
the external appearance of animals. According to a theory of Alan Turing, the
man famous for breaking the enigma code during World War II, chemical
reaction and diffusion processes in cells determine these growths of pattern.
Most recent studies addressed the question why some species grow vertical
stripes while others have horizontal ones. A new model by Harvard University
researches predicts that there are three variables that could affect the
orientation of these stripes. First, the substance that amplifies the density of
stripe patterns. Second, the substance that changes one of the parameters
involved in stripes formation. Lastly, the physical change in the direction of the
origin of the stripe.
Spirals

Spirals is a curve pattern that focuses on the center point and a

series of circular shapes that revolve around it. If you construct a series of
squares with lengths equal to the Fibonacci numbers (1,1,2,3,5, etc ) and
trace a line through the diagonals of each square, it forms a Fibonacci spiral. 
Many examples of the Fibonacci spiral can be seen in nature, including
the examples below.
Fractals

Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across

different scales. They are patterns that is repeated at ever smaller scales to
produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical
geometry. It comes from a Latin adjective “fractus” or verb “frangere” which
means to break. Fractal geometry is a discipline named and popularized by the
mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (1924-2000). This category of geometry
describes a set of curves many of which were rarely seen before the advent of
computers.

Mandelbrot wrote the fractal geometry of nature (1977) and he stated:

“clouds are not sphering, mountains are not coning, coastlines are not circling,
and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line” some
popular fractals are: Sierpinski triangle, Pascal’s triangle, Koch snowflake,
fractal trees and Barnsley ferns.

Fractals geometry is a useful tool in quantifying the structure of a wide

range of objects in nature, from pure mathematics, through physics, and
chemistry, to biology and medical sciences.
Foam

Foam is a substance formeby trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid. A

bath sponge and the bead on the glass of beer are example of foams.in most
foams, the volume of gas is largewith this films of liquid or solid separating the
regions of gas. Soap foams are also known as suds.
 Cracks

A fracture or cracks is the separation of an object into two or more

pieces under the action of stress.the fracture is a solid usually occurs due to
the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces with in the
solid.if a displace ment develops perpendicular to the surface of
displacement,it is called a normal tensil crack or simply a crack.If a
displacement develops tangentially to the surface of displacement,it is called
a shear crack, slip band,or dislocation.
 Wave

Wave is a disturbance that transfer of energy through matter or space,

withlittle or no associated mass transport.waves consist of occilations or
vibrations of a physical medium or a field,around relatively fixed locations.
Surface waves in water show water ripples.

Tesselation

Tessellations is a pattern covering a plane by fitting together replicas of

the same basic shape. The word tessellation comes from Latin word tessera,
which means a square tablet or a die used in gambling. Tessellation have
been created by nature and the man either by accident or design. Examples
range from simple hexagonal patterns from the bees’ honeycomb, snake skin,
or a tiled floor to intricate decorations used by the Moons in thirteenths
century Spain or the elaborate mathematical, but artistic mosaic created by
Mauritis Cornelis Escher in the 20th century. To tesselate a shape, it must be
able to exactly surround a point or the sum of the angles around each point in
a tessellation must be 3600. The only regular polygons with this feature are
equilateral triangle, squares and regular hexagons.
 For a beehive, close packing is important to maximize the use of
space. Hexagons fit most closely together without any gaps; so hexagonal
wax cells are what bees create to store their eggs and larvae. 

Fibonacci Numbers

Fibonacci sequence is one of the most famous formulas in

mathematics. It 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, trillium has 3, hibiscus has 5, cosmos flower has 8, corn
marigold has 13, some asters have 21, and a daisy can have 34,55, or 89
petals. Surprisingly, these petals count represent the first eleven numbers of
the Fibonacci sequence. Not all petal numbers of flowers, however, follows
this pattern discovered by Fibonacci. Some examples include the
Brassicaceae family having four petals. Astoundingly, many of the flowers
abide by the pattern observed by Fibonacci.

Fibonacci rabbit problems in the end of this lesson is not a realistic

model of population growth of rabbits but is a very good example of a
mathematical problem solved using patterns. It is interesting to note also that
the famous rabbit problem paved the way to the discovery of a phenomenal
sequence of numbers known as the Fibonacci Sequence.

Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci also known as Leonardo of Pisa is an

Italian mathematician and was born in Pisa, Italy on around 1170 A.D., who
introduces the sequence with a problem involving rabbits in the 13th century.
He started with a male and a female rabbit. After a month, they mature and
produce a litter with another male and female rabbit. A month later, those
rabbits reproduce and out comes another male and female, who also can
mate after a month. After a year, how many rabbits would you have? the
formula used to get to that answer is what's now known as the Fibonacci
sequence.
 Sequence is an ordered list of numbers, called terms, that may have
repeated values. The arrangement of these terms is set by a definite rule. The
terms of a sequence could be generated by applying the rule to the previous
term of the sequence.

Fibonacci Sequence is formed by adding the preceding two numbers,

beginning with 0 and 1. ratios of two Fibonacci numbers approximate the
golden ratio, which is considered as the most aesthetically pleasing
proportion.

The principle behind the Fibonacci numbers is as follows:

 Let F n be the nth integer in the Fibonacci sequence, the next (n

+1) th term F n+1 is determined by adding nth and the (n-1) th
integer.
 Consider the first few terms below: Let F 1 = 1 be the first term,
and F2 = 1 be the second term, the third term F 3 is found by F3 =
F1 + F2 = 1 + 1 = 2.
 The fourth term F 4 is 2 + 1 =3, the sum of the second and the
third term.
 To find the new nth Fibonacci number, simply add the two
numbers immediately preceding this nth number.

n= 3 : F 3 = 1 + 1 = 2 n= 7 : F 7 = 5 + 8 = 13

n= 4 : F4 = 1 + 2 = 3 n= 8 : F8 = 8 + 13 = 21

n= 5: F 5 = 2 + 3 = 5 n= 9 : F9 = 13 + 21 = 34

n= 6 : F 6 = 3 + 5 = 8

from this pattern, we conjecture that F n = F n-1 + F n-2 for n ≥ 3,

Fibonacci discovered that a Fibonacci number can be found by adding its
previous two Fibonacci number.

F1 = 1, F2 = 1 and Fn = F n-1 + F n-2 , for n ≥ 3

Example 1: Using the definition of Fibonacci numbers find the eight and
tenth Fibonacci number.
 Solution: the eight Fibonacci number is the sum of the two previous
Fibonacci number. Thus,

F8=F7+F6

= (F6 +F5) + F6

= (8 + 5) +8

= 13 + 8

= 21

The tenth Fibonacci number is the sum of the two previous Fibonacci
number in an ordered sequence. Thus,

F 10 = F 9 + F 8

= (F8 +F7) + F8

= (21 + 13) + 21

= 34 + 21

= 55

It is easy to find the nth Fibonacci number F n if the two previous

number, F n-1 and F n-2 are known. Suppose we want find F 20 using the
definition, it is tedious and time consuming to compute F 19 and F 18 to
determine F 20 . Fortunately, Jacques Binet in 1543 was able to find a formula
for the nth Fibonacci number.

Binet’s Formula:

Example 2: Use Binet formula and a calculator to find the 20 th and 50th
Fibonacci number.

Solution:

Fn = (1 + √ 5 / 2) n – (1-√ 5 / 2) n / √ 5
 F 20 = (1 + √ 5 / 2) 20 – (1-√ 5 / 2) 20

= 6765

Fn = (1 + √ 5 / 2) n – (1-√ 5 / 2) n / √ 5

F 50 = (1 + √ 5 / 2) 50 – (1-√ 5 / 2) 50

= 12,586,269,020

The Golden Ratio

The Fibonacci number or the Golden Ratio is been called the

natures secret code and natures universal rule. It is said to govern the
dimensions of everything from the great Pyramid of Giza to the iconic seashell
found in nature.

Fibonacci numbers is very close to the Golden Ratio  which is

approximately 1.6180339887....the ratio of two consecutive Fibonacci
numbers as n becomes large, approaches the golden ratio; that is, lim F n / F n-1
= 1.6180339887….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.

The ratio between the forearms 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 human face is
also proportion to the other parts of it.

 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: with of second tooth
 Width of eyes: with of iris

The Golden ratio can also be visualized as a rectangular perfectly

formed by a square and another rectangle, which can be repeated infinitely
inside each section.

Shapes and figures that bear this proportion are generally considered
to be aesthetically pleasing. As such, this ratio is visible in many works of art
and architecture such as in the Mona Lisa, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and
the Parthenon.

If you construct a series of squares with lengths equal to the Fibonacci

numbers (1,1,2,3,5, etc) and trace a line through the diagonals of each
square, it forms a Fibonacci spiral. 

The golden ratio denoted by "φ" is sometimes called the golden mean
or golden section.
"φ"= 1 + √ 5 / 2 = 1.6180339887….

Take Note:
 Kindly watch in you tube channel entitled “Why is 1.618…is so
important ” using the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keLN89CWZ-
A for additional reference.

Exponential Growth

As of 2017, it is estimated that the world population is about 7.6 billion.

World leaders, sociologist, and anthropologists, are interested in studying
population, including its growth. Mathematics can be used to model
population growth.

The following two function formulas were used to easily illustrate the

concepts of growth and decay in applied situations. If a quantity grows by a
fixed percent at regular intervals, the pattern can be depicted by these
functions.

Exponential Growth: Exponential Decay:

y = a (1 + r ) x y = a (1 – r ) x

Remember that the original exponential formula was  y= a b x.

You will notice that in these new growth and decay functions,
the b value (growth factor) has been replaced either by (1 + r) or by (1 - r).
The growth "rate" (r) is determined as  b =1+ r.
The decay "rate" (r) is determined as b = 1 - r

a = initial value (the amount before measuring growth or decay)

r = growth or decay rate (most often represented as a percentage
and expressed as a decimal)
x = number of time intervals that have passed

Example 1: The population of hometown in 2016 was estimated to be

35,000 people with an annual rate of increase of 2.4%.
a) What is the growth factor for hometown?

b) Write an equation to model future growth.

 c) Use the equation to estimate the population in 2020 to the nearest
hundred people.

Solution:

a) After one year the population would be 35,000 + 0.024(35000).

By factoring, we have 35000(1 + 0.024) or 35000(1.024).
The growth factor is 1.024. (Remember that growth factor is greater
than 1.)
b) y = a b x = a (1.014) x = 35000 (1.024) x

c) y = 35000(1.024)4 ≈ 38,482.91 ≈ 38,500

Continuous Exponential Growth or Decay

Most naturally occurring phenomena grow continuously. For

example, bacteria will continue to grow over a 24 hours period, producing new
bacteria which will also grow.

The bacteria do not wait until the end of the 24 hours, and then all
reproduce at once.
The exponential” e” is used when modeling continuous growth that
occurs naturally such as populations, bacteria, radioactive decay, etc. You
can think of e like a universal constant representing how fast you could
possibly grow using a continuous process. And, the beauty of e is that not
only is it used to represent continuous growth, but it can also represent growth
measured periodically across time.

Continuous Exponential Growth or Decay

A = A0 e k t

A = ending value (amount after growth or decay)

A0 = initial value (amount before measuring growth or decay)
e = exponential e = 2.71828183...
k = continuous growth rate (also called constant of proportionality)
(k > 0, the amount is increasing (growing); k < 0, the amount is
 decreasing (decaying))
t = time that has passed

If we compare this new formula to our previous exponential decay

formula (or growth formula), we can see how e k is related to the rate of
decay, r, (or growth).

Example: A strain of bacteria growing on your desktop doubles every 5

minutes. Assuming that you start with only one bacterium, how many bacteria
could be present at the end of 96 minutes?
(bacteria continuously grow)

Solution:

Now, form the equation using this k value, and solve the problem using
the time of 96 minutes.