Maths is all around us. When our kids start learning geometry, it opens up a whole new world to them. They start to see patterns and shapes in everything around them, even shapes of patches of grass!
Why is so? Well maths forms the building blocks for everything we experience. That’s why it makes sense to have a good foundation in maths. The more we understand it, the more we understand the world around us.
Here are a few examples of what we mean:
The Fibonacci Sequence
This is a simple number sequence that has a profound effect on our world. The sequence begins with the numbers 1 and 1, and then each subsequent number is derived by adding the two previous numbers. We see this sequence in nature all the time. For example, in a pineapple, the seeds in a sunflower, the numbers of petals on a flower or the spirals in a pine cone.
The numbers form a spiral which we also see in shells and hurricanes for example.
Even the shape of our galaxy is a Fibonacci spiral!
Repeating shapes
We see repeating shapes all around us and these are known in maths as fractals. We can see fractals in the leaves of ferns and the branching of neurons in our brain.
The wonderous hexagon
An obvious example of hexagons would be the bee hive. But there are less obvious examples as well. Bubbles! But they are round, you say! Yes, they are, but did you realise that when they get pushed together on the surface of water, they take the shape of hexagons?
Concentric Circles
These are circles that share the same centre but have different radii and they form one inside another. Think ripples in a pond when a stone is thrown. Or onion rings, or the rings in the bark of a tree as it ages.
Looking at the bigger picture, the planets orbit our sun in concentric circles, and there are concentric circles around the planet Saturn.
Look for shapes and patterns in whats going on around you know. What do you see? Let us know!
