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August, 2019
PATTERNS
In this discussion, we will be looking at patterns and regularities in
the world, and how MATHEMATICS comes into play, both in
nature and in humanendeavor.
Definition
Patterns are regular, repeated or recurring forms ordesigns.
Example
A.46
B.52
C.50
D.56
A.4
B.5
C.6
D.7
Definition
Symmetry indicates that you can draw an imaginary line across an
object and the resulting parts are mirror images of each other.
Example
butterfly
Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man
starfish
Figure 1
The butterfly is symmetric about the axis indicated by the black line.
Note that the left and right portions are exactly the same. This type
of symmetry is called bilateral symmetry.
Figure 2
Figure 3
Note that if you rotate the starfish in Figure 3 by 72◦ , you can still
achieve the same appearance as the original position. This is known as
the rotational symmetry. The smallest measure of angle that a
figure can be rotated while still preserving the original position is
called the angle of rotation. A more common way of describing
rotational symmetry is by order of rotation.
360◦
Angle of rotation =
n
Example
Figure 4
Figure 5
Definition
Packing problem involve finding the optimum method of filling up a
given space such as a cubic or spherical container.
Proof.
Suppose you have circles of radius 1 cm, each of which will then have
an area of π cm 2 . We are then going to fill a plane with these circles
using square packing and hexagonal packing.
Figure 6
Proof (Cont.)
For square packing, each square will have an area of 4 cm 2 . Note
from Figure 6 that for each square, it can only fit one circle. The
percentage of square’s area covered by circles will be
Figure 7
Proof (Cont.)
√
Thus, the area of the hexagon is 6 3 cm 2 . Looking at Figure 7,
there are 3 circles that could fit inside one hexagon (the whole circle
in the middle and 6 one-thirds of a circle), which gives total area as 3
π cm 2 . The percentage of the hexagon’s area covered by circles will
be
Examples
diffused through the embryo according to a systemof
"reaction-diffusion equations."
Fibonacci numbers on flowers and nautilus shell Mathematics
used to model population growth with the formula
A = P ert
where A is the size of the population after it grows, P is the
initial number of people, r is the rate of growth, t is time and e
is the Euler’s constant with an approximately value of 2.718.