Activity 1.

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Synthesis

Natural patterns can be found in everything in nature, including trees, symmetry,

Mathematics becomes the key to unraveling the enigma of the patterns that
repeat in nature from the smallest seashell to the leaves and branches of vast trees, as
Ian Stewart famously said: "Mathematics is the science of patterns, and nature exploits
just about every pattern that there is." Like Peter S. Stevens in his excellent book
Patterns in Nature, many people developed an interest in these innate patterns. He also
questioned why rivers and arteries have branching similar to trees. Why do some fern
tips and leaves have the appearance of spiral galaxies and hurricanes? Why do
meandering rivers and snakes resemble the cable loop patterns? These were the few
queries that came from the person's perception of mathematics. Mathematics is a topic
that, in real life, places the area in a social and cultural context and is primarily
concerned with people. In everyday life, mathematics refers to a variety of issues that
could come up in the actual world, not only those that are typical or familiar to us.
(Mosylod, 2006). Math has value beyond what we already know. It's similar to trying to
squeeze something inside of our skulls. Furthermore, that something is mathematics.
Although it depends on the individual, some people have found it to be difficult (Lomas,
2001). Ian Stewart wrote a book named Nature's Number, which was published in 1995,
to help readers fully comprehend mathematics. Ian Stewart is very plain in his writing,
but what matters most is that he is fascinating. He can depict the wonder, oddity, and
profound discoveries that result from interpreting the world in terms of patterns, forms,
and numbers because he has an intriguing, mathematical viewpoint on it. In order to
help us understand the patterns and harmonies all around us on a deeper level, he
wants to show us the world through the eyes of a mathematician, which is full of hints
and subtleties. Ian Stewart's book, Nature's Number, opened our eyes and gave us all a
fresh perspective on the world. The Natural Order, What Mathematics is for, What
Mathematics is About, The Constant Change, From Violins to Videos, Broken
Symmetry, The Rhythm of Life, Do Dice play God, and finally Drops, Dynamics, and
Daisies make up the book of Steward's nine points and notions. He helped us accept
the idea that mathematics is all around us in the first chapter. By exhibiting clear
patterns, integral relationships of unusual things, and how all these things continuously
interact with one another, he showed how the generalities and regularities of these

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things in this world contributed a great deal in reaching universality despite their
diversity. These minuscule symmetrical elements are what he named patterns. When
patterns are present in everything around you—both what you can see and what you
can't see—it might be difficult to resist seeing them. He continued by giving instances of
these patterns, including the honeycomb, the symmetry of the tips at the ends of
snowflakes, the shape of raindrops as they fall from clouds, and the uniform number of
petals on each flower. He also mentioned the stripes on tigers and hyenas. Because
humans are intellectual beings, we created a formal system of concepts for recognizing,
classifying, and understanding patterns that we called mathematics. Because of its
practical applications, mathematics has reached the height of its significance and is now
changing the world. While applied mathematics demonstrates its practical applications
and how mathematics improved things by combining it with various other concepts,
such as understanding how gravity operates, how acceleration became the rate of
change of the rate of change, how to unravel the Stewart discussed the two opposing
worldviews in the following chapter. Because it is a part of our lives and it gives us a
better understanding of the universe, mathematics aids us in discovering the beauty of
nature through numbers, altering the way we view the world and maybe being used in
our daily lives. Math is challenging, in my opinion, since if you don't study, you learn that
you have a pattern that you will adhere to in daily life. We don't pay attention to certain
patterns, but after reading the book, I've realized they do exist and are ignored. The
three main categories of patterns are mathematical, geometrical, and movement
patterns. According to one, everything exists in a clearly defined objective reality and
the cosmos is regulated by hard, constant laws. The opposing viewpoint asserts that
everything is in flux and change and that there is no such thing as an objective reality.
The first big step toward this vision was, however, made by Newton's mathematics,
which united and transcended both rigid and flexible flux. Stewart immediately realized
that change is governed by laws and that laws produce flux. Stewart characterized
symmetry as a mathematical and aesthetic concept that aids us in classifying and
differentiating between many types of regular shapes in his sixth chapter, "Broken
Symmetry." patterns. How to explain the change in amounts using calculus, the
mysteries of the universe by deriving meaning from planetary movements, and how to
talk about the evolution of the sight. In retrospect, Stewart has previously made an effort
to define what we mean by "a pattern," coming to the conclusion that we detect patterns
in things that have symmetry—but not excessive or broken symmetry. The idea of
"symmetry breaking" is more dynamic in terms of pattern modifications. For example,
when a pond's surface is still and symmetrical, we cannot see any pattern. When we
throw a pebble into the pond, shattering the perfect symmetry, the only symmetries that
hold true are those that determine where the pebble will contact the water's surface in

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the ensuing pattern of circles. The ripples in this pond disrupt the symmetry of the plane
in a similar way that a pebble might. Stewart wrote on the seventh chapter, titled "The
Rhythm of Life," The trot, pace, bound, walk, rotational gallop, transverse gallop, and
canter are the seven different quadrupedal gaits. The explanation of how animals move,
notably those with legs, is introduced in this chapter by Stewart. He says that the Hopf
bifurcation and the nature of oscillation are the starting points since if a simplified
system wobbles, the complex system it is formed from must as well. Animals move by
staggered or syncopated oscillations of their muscles, which are oscillations brought
about by neural circuits in the brain. This chapter merely examines the pace of life in
general. Stewart wanted us to understand how closely tied mathematics is to all of our
actions and even the stages of our lives. Each movement and single step has a
corresponding count, which is a concept in mathematics. Animals as well as humans
appear to be impacted by mathematics. Stewart discusses the Chaos theory in the
subsequent chapter. Because of its unpredictable nature, chaotic behavior appears to
be random to the untrained eye even if it obeys deterministic laws. There is a simple,
deterministic theory that describes chaos, which appears to be complex and without a
pattern. Scientists in the 19th century thought that if you understood the initial conditions
and the laws governing a system, you could completely anticipate the outcomes. It is
impossible because it is challenging to confidently specify the initial conditions.
"Sensitivity to beginning conditions" as a result influences every action in the actual
world. Small divergences at the beginning may later lead to cataclysmic differences in
mature systems. Stewart elaborates on this concept after that. In a three-dimensional
area known as the phase space, the behavior is plotted in order to create the phase
picture. Without having to develop a formula or be concerned with identifying every
number, the basic shape of the behavior can be identified. Phase images, which are
often employed, have shown that dynamic systems frequently develop and change in
accordance with established plans. Attractors are what these are. In addition, Stewart's
Nature's Number's concluding chapter states that he provides three examples of what
appear to be 'simple' things in nature that are actually the product of perplexing
complexity:

○ what happens when water drips from a faucet.

We frequently notice water pouring from faucets or flowerheads in our daily lives,
and the underlying principles in all three cases seem to be reducible to plainly stated

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laws and functions. But there are bafflingly complicated steps between these
fundamental mathematical concepts and their application in the real world.

References:
Lomas, D. (2001). Philosophizing about mathematics. Canadian Journal of Math,
Science & Technology Education, 1(1), 111-116.
Mosvold, R. (2006). Mathematics in everyday life A study of beliefs and actions.
The University of Bergen.
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/natures-numbers-ian-stewart/
https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/1956/1153/Thesis.pdf?sequence=
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Chloe Margarette A. Solomon