Mathematics In Every Aspect Around Us

Mathematics, as complex and absurd it may sound, is literally everywhere. Everywhere in a sense that it is frequently applied in our day-to-day activities, such as cooking (when we make correct measurements of ingredients), planning our daily agenda (how much time we will allocate for schoolwork, house chores, and others), being woke up by our alarm clock (telling what time is it is a very valuable skill as it is also a form of Mathematics), washing clothes at a washing machine (when we set the appropriate timer that will allocate the washing loads), paying our bills (when we count the right amount of monetization) and so forth. Everyone can see that Mathematics serves as a vital aspect on human survival because it is used even in the simplest things. Due to this, it is a must that we must express our sincerely gratitude to our ancestors that invented the concept of Mathematics.

Cliché as it may seem, the advent of technological advancement which is mostly influenced by the concepts of Mathematics, has made the people living in this world to depreciate the beauty of Mathematics discipline. We tend to disregard the hard work done by Leonardo Bonacci (1170-1250) even though he is being considered as the most talented mathematician of the middle ages. As what every mathematician should do, Bonacci also wrote a book entitled “Liber Abaci” to describe mathematics he learned. He also made the sequence that is highly considered by many as powerful and beautiful, the Fibonacci sequence. It is due to the fact that you can trace a quite large number of patterns that lies secretly in the beauty of Fibonacci sequence. Fibonacci sequence is not limited in the four corners of the classroom. Its beauty is so extensive that it can also be discovered at nature from pinecones to sunflowers to hurricanes to milkyway.

We also tend to disregard the contribution of another hard working mathematician, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) to the beauty of Mathematics. Many people believed that due to Pascal’s admiration towards Bonacci’s very own “Fibonacci sequence”, he decided to make his own sequence. Pascal’s triangle, as interesting as it can be, presents a conducive planar demonstration for various numbers (Coolman, 2015). Everyone can definitely say that Blaise Pascal and Leonardo Bonacci fervently hopes that their contribution to mathematical beauty and uniqueness will somehow serve as an inspiration for every people to make them perceive mathematics as enjoyable, fruitful, and informative as possible, not as boring, anxious, dreadful, and loathsome. The notion that mathematics is dull, highly specialized, and deal mostly with concepts that requires high level of numeracy skills is totally unjustified.

Through Mathematics discipline, we can actually “almost” compute the perfection. This element of perfection is known as the Golden Ratio, also known as the golden mean, the divine proportion, or the golden proportion. It is also mostly represented as the Golden Rectangle, with a ratio of 1:1.618. This 1.618 digit is so beautiful that it seconded the notion that Mathematics’ beauty is everywhere. The Golden Ratio, if elaborated, has been just lurking around the bushes and the shadows. The traces of the beauty of this ratio has been found on various architectural structures, whether it was being built during ancient times, or being built aided by the advent and modernized world we live in. It has been also found on art discipline. The works of Leonardo Da Vinci is believed to be influenced by this occurrence. His artworks Mona Lisa and The Last Supper have been incorporated through the means of quite number of Golden Rectangle. Experts notated that Leonardo Da Vinci perhaps speculated that Golden measurements have made his paintings unique and differ from other artworks.

But bear in mind that nobody’s perfect. As golden ratio has been perceived by many as “almost” perfection, there was a time that a certain person tried to illustrate an outer human body with a 1: 1.168 measurement to each body parts. The result is not that satisfying. The image is too perfect that anyone that will take a look at it surely perceived the illustration as a creepy one. This occurrence had been excerpt from the example given by our Mathematics professor, Ms. Gelyn R. Acar.

The discussions presented and elaborated above is just an example of how Mathematics creates beauty. It creates beauty in the sense that Mathematics has been with us from the very beginning. This occurrence greatly amazes and satisfies me. It is so ridiculous that I tend to be so oblivious back then that it leads me to depreciate it, without me knowing. Perhaps, depreciating Mathematics’ beauty unconsciously is the perfect sentence that will surely describes not just me, but mostly, all of us. Surely, without the Mathematical beauty, we are basically nothing. It is due to the fact that amazing scientific, mathematical and technological discoveries and innovations have made rapid changes in today’s life and culture. One of the greatest tools used to affect this discoveries and innovations is mathematics, used in ways we never thought before.

Mathematics paved the way towards the betterment of our lives. If you won’t mind asking, I, myself, cannot imagine a life without mathematics. I cannot imagine myself a life without a numeracy skill. Skill that is not easy to acquire and develop. I cannot imagine myself living in a world being a pathetic person, just letting herself be fooled, abused, and cheated. Mathematics doesn’t have to be convoluted for us to appreciate how beautiful it is. Learning at least the basic essentials or branches of Mathematics is a way of at least appreciating the beauty and fruit of hard work our ancestors and fellow men allocate their time for. Learning is a continuous process. If there’s a point you are having a hard time on dealing with Math concepts, basic or not, just push yourself more. The time will come wherein you will surely do a better job. In conclusion, knowing and appreciating even a little bit of Mathematics’ beauty and importance can make our life a lot easier.