DIVINO, Jenny Rose F.

Mathematics in the Modern

Word
BSBA-MM-1 TTH; 4:00-5:30

What Mathematics is For?

"Mathematics is the science of patterns, and nature exploits just about every pattern that
there is."

Mathematics is brilliant at helping us to solve puzzles. It is a more or less systematic way of

digging out the rules and structures that lie behind some observed pattern or regularity, and then
using those rules and structures to explain what’s going on. Kepler discovers the planets move in
ellipses. The nature of acceleration is ‘not a fundamental quality, a rate of change’. Newton and
Leibniz invent calculus to help us work out rates of change. Two of the main things that math’s are
for are; providing the tools which let scientists understand what nature is doing and providing new
theoretical questions for mathematicians to explore further. Mathematics is pure and applied. He
mentions one of the oddities, paradoxes or thought-provoking things that comes up in many science
books which is the eerie way that good mathematics, whatever its source, eventually turns out to be
useful, to be applicable to the real world, to explain some aspect of nature. Many philosophers have
wondered why. Is there a deep congruence between the human mind and the structure of the
universe? Did God make the universe mathematically and implant an understanding of math’s in us?
Is the universe made of math’s? Stewart’s answer is simple and elegant: he thinks that nature exploits
every pattern that there is, which is why we keep discovering patterns everywhere. We humans
express these patterns in numbers, but it isn’t the numbers nature uses it’s the patterns and shapes and
possibilities which the numbers express, or define. Mendel noticing the numerical relationships with
which characteristics of peas are expressed when they are crossbred. The double helix is a structure
of DNA. The computer simulation of the evolution of the eye from an initial mutation providing for
skin cells sensitive to light, published by Daniel Nilsson and Susanne Pelger in 1994.

Resonance is the relationship between periodically moving bodies in which their cycles lock
together so that they take up the same relative positions at regular intervals. The cycle time is the
period of the system. The individual bodies have different periods. The moon’s rotational period is
the same as its revolution around the earth, so there is a 1:1 resonance of its orbital and rotational
period. Mathematics doesn’t just analyze, it can predict, predict how all kinds of systems will work,
from the aerodynamics which keep planes flying to the amount of fertilizer required to increase crop
yield to the complicated calculations which keep communications satellites in orbit round the earth
and therefore sustain the internet and mobile phone networks. Time lags: the gap between a new
mathematical idea being developed and its practical implementation can be a century or more: it was
17th century interest in the vibration of a violin string which led, three hundred years later, to the
invention of radio, radar and TV.
 Ian Stewart’s Nature’s Numbers: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics (New York: Basic Books,
1995) is a book that lets us see nature from a mathematician’s point of view, changing the way we
view the world. The book begins off with an introduction of patterns that we can observe in nature.
Numerical patterns, patterns of form, movements (translation, rotation, reflection) and shapes are so
widespread in the nature that it is difficult not to notice them. Stripes on zebras and tigers, spots on
leopards and hyenas, movement of stars across the sky, number of seeds in the head of a sunflower,
the shape of a snowflake and even colored arcs of light adorn the sky in the form of rainbows all
happen based on a pattern. Ian Stewart also emphasizes that mathematics it’s not with regards to
numbers, however additionally concerning operations (also referred to as functions or
transformations), concerning the logical relationships between facts, and concerning proof. He
provides a decent example of the method of finding a symptom. There’s additionally a motivating
section on the “thingification of processes” as a basic mathematical operation.

Here it’s created clear what a universal abstraction method this can be, not simply in arithmetic.
Painting pictures, sculpting sculptures, and writing poems are valid and vital ways to express our
feelings about the world and about ourselves. There is a little of all these instincts in all of us, and
there is both good and bad in each instinct. The scientist’s instinct is to try to understand it to work
out what’s really going on. The entrepreneur’s instinct is to exploit the natural world. The
mathematician’s instinct is to structure that process of understanding by seeking generalities that cut
across the obvious subdivisions. Communing with nature does all of us good: it reminds us of what
we are.

I enjoyed reading his book because it is truly interesting, informative and educational in a way
that he presented and provided evident examples of mathematics in our nature and he writes with
clarity and precision. We don’t pay attention to those patterns but because I’ve read the book, I
realized that it really exists and we just ignore them. I have also learned that patterns of form and
motion reveal deep regularities in the world around us specifically the six fold symmetry of
snowflakes which led Kepler to conjecture that all matter is composed of atoms; patterns of waves
and dunes give clues to the laws of fluid flow; and tiger stripes and hyena spots give a key to
understanding the processes of biological growth. It’s like science and mathematics is connected in
some ways. How related questions are left to domain experts, be it physicists, chemists, scientists,
etc. Mathematicians concentrate on why and that opens a whole set of areas for people to work on
how’s. It was being used with great success in Physics but the mathematicians were really concerned
about what it really meant. They tend to ask why rather than how. Thus, there is a fundamental
difference in the way of thinking of a mathematician. A lot of physics proceeded without any major
advances in the mathematical world. For 200 years, calculus was in a different position. Mathematics
is at the center of our culture and its history is often confused with that of philosophy. Just as the
cosmological and evolution theories have exerted considerable influence on the conception that
humans have of us, the non-Euclidean geometries have allowed new ideas about the universe and
theorems of mathematical logic have revealed the limitations of the deductive method. Mathematics
has a number of very useful benefits to our mind if we go into its study. It develops our reasoning,
helps us to have analytical thinking, quickens our mind, generates practicality and also its use can be
applied in the day to day.
 Whatever the reasons, mathematics definitely is a useful way to think about nature. What do we
want it to tell us about the patterns we observe? There are many answers. We want to understand how
they happen; to understand why they happen, which is different; to organize the underlying patterns
and regularities in the most satisfying way; to predict how nature will behave; to control nature for
our own ends; and to make practical use of what we have learned about our world. Mathematics
helps us to do all these things, and often it is indispensable. Math helps us to have analytical thinking.
We could define it as the thought directed to decompose the arguments in its premises or expressions
that compose it, to see the relations that exist between them and their conclusion, in order to judge its
veracity or reliability of the same. This is what we do when we do a mathematical problem: collect
the data, break down its premises, observe the relations that keep or systematically solve their parts
in a rational way. If we are able to understand mathematics and arrive at logical solutions, we will be
able to prepare our minds when we have real problems. We can look for the best logic, see the
possible solutions and relate the data we have to reach the conclusion. Analytical thinking develops
the ability to investigate and know the truth about the world around us. There are truths that we try to
look for and that are based on the evidence and not on the emotions. It is a thought that allows us to
be alert for error both ourselves and others, to deception and manipulation. This is possible because
mathematics allows us to reason clearly and logically, taking into account real data and that can be
verified. Mathematics develops the ability to think because to find the solutions, you have to think of
a whole coherent process. It could be said that mathematics is fundamental in the education of
children since math teaches them to think.

Thanks to mathematics, we can explain how things work, that is, we can express our thoughts and
ideas with clarity, coherence, and precision. This is fundamental and very positive so that all the
others understand us and know that we are people with a clear and coherent thought. Our way of
ordering ideas and expressing them correctly is a big part of our image. Mathematics promotes
wisdom. Mathematics applies to other sciences as in new technologies and it is very present in our
life. In fact, many of the phenomena of our daily life are governed by the exact sciences. The
teaching of mathematics helps and enables students to be able to reach their own convictions, as it
teaches them that to solve a problem must reach the truth, which there is no doubt because it is
objective and logical. Mathematics quickens our minds and helps us, in general, to deepen and think
when we are faced with complex problems. Our life is composed largely of situations of choice,
approach, reasoning and facing problems to which solutions have to be found. In that sense,
mathematics helps you to open your mind and to understand that there is only one way to solve
things. It is to investigate and finally conclude.

Math is incredibly important in our lives and, without realizing it, we use mathematical concepts,
as well as the skills we learn from doing math problems, every day. The laws of mathematics govern
everything around us, and without a good understanding of them, one can encounter significant
problems in life.

“Without mathematics, there's nothing you can do. Everything around you is
mathematics. Everything around you is numbers”