World Of Patterns! (they’re everywhere.)
Is the universe haphazard or in some kind of a pattern?
A pattern is the way in which something happens, develops, or is done. It can be an arrangement of lines, shapes, colours, etc. Patterns and mathematics are closely related — mathematics create patterns and vice-versa. If the set of numbers are related to each other in a specific rule, then the rule or manner is called a pattern. — that’s how mathematics define patterns.
Have you ever thought why everything in the universe, ranging from planets to massive Suns are all spheres? — if yes. Then your mind just pondered in the right direction. They are the live examples of a pattern.
Italian sculptor and world renowned painter Michelangelo used patterns (mathematics)to create his painting The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace. The technique he used was — the golden-ratio to create beautiful frescoes on the ceilings of cathedral. From where did he (like others of his time) learn this technique? These geniuses didn’t create this technique —they explored nature — it was an eternal gift from the cosmos, they’d just found out.
Did humans create patterns or it was just a discovery? — No, we didn’t create. — We learnt this technique from nature!
Are you excited? Wait! It’s just the starting. We’ll take you into more such patterns.
These patterns are everywhere.
The most common examples of pattern we see around are night and day, sky and earth, summer and winter, winds creating ripples in sand, and the tigers’ beautiful stripes embedded upon their skin.
Not just this, life itself works in the pattern of birth and death.Are these patterns a code which seems impossible to crack?
A few men of extra-ordinary genius, have a super-power to think beyond the boundaries of mind. One such person was — Alan Turing.
He gave us a way to understand nature through a new dimension — of patterns. He was the person who decrypted messages during World War-II. His thinking and love for mathematics gave impetus to first of its kind research in the field of mathematical biology — understanding nature using mathematics.
Alan Turing believed, the patterns in nature are formed due to the interplay of two chemicals — activator and an inhibitor. Activator expands due to the production of itself, while the inhibitor retards the production of activator.
Another example of patterns is the Fibonacci-sequence. Have you ever looked closely at the petals of a flower? — what’s common in them! Why do they all have the same amount of petals? — count them! You’ll get a sequence. Now, look more closely. You’ll realise, the sequence is the Fibonacci sequence.
Example: Start with 1 and 1. From here keep on adding the last two numbers.
1+1= 2
1+2= 3
2+3= 5
3+5= 8
5+8=13
Not to forget the strange case of number pi (π). It’s value comes out to be 3.1415926535
The practical example of this number is river. You can measure the bend of a river by measuring its total length and dividing by straight route from it’s mouth.ie., length/distance= pi (π).
Anything related to waves will have pi (π).
You haven’t seen waves? Even I’ve never seen them with naked eyes. If I show you, then? It’s a promise!
I’m going to share something that will dazzle you. You’ll be able to visualise audio frequencies. Believe me! — you will. You’d be awestruck! I’m taking you into the world of waves — how they work — what patterns they form!
Look at the above picture. You might be wondering: what are these?…they look like sand particles. You’re right! These are sand particles. But it’s an experiment!
I was shocked when I saw the resonance experiment- the world of cymatic-frequencies in music. In this experiment, salt or sand is sprinkled on a metal plate and the plate is vibrated with the help of tone generator. When we change the pitch of the tone, we see beautiful yet complex geometric patterns taking birth. When you go further, and change the frequencies, say 1155 hz, the pattern would be different than when you tune up to 3500 hz.
See, I told you that I’ll show you waves.— I fulfilled my promise. Those pieces of sand you’re watching are formed by setting certain frequencies into play.
Now watch this!
Shocking! Isn’t it?
But what about other patterns! — those that take place at gigantic scale not just on a micro-level. — on a macro-level — those of light and dark matter, or stars and planets, or galaxies and multiverses. Do they also follow some sort of pattern too?
Yes, they do. The technique was known to our forefathers too, the people of ancient times. They used to predict future just by looking at the position of stars in the sky. Have you noticed a pattern in the above picture? — It’s a constellation. What we call constellations are just human way of understanding patterns in the infinite sky. Ursa Major, Orion, Aquarius, Cygnus, etc.. — all are patterns that humans found in the deep space.
Not only this! Our minds have plagiarised nature’s principles and formed architectural marvels.
Our greatest accomplishments — the greatest architectural designs like the pyramids of Egypt, the spiral staircase of Loretto Chapel, Leaning Tower of Pisa, the grid-pattern of cities of Harappan civilisation — we built them after exploring nature and using the designs in the architecture.
Does nature work in a mathematical way, or we humans understand nature in a mathematical sense? — in the coming years we’ll know. And humans would certainly apply the learning from nature in other fields too, eg., artificial intelligence. Our computers were itself designed from a pattern of two numbers : 0 and 1. Maybe in future, we, humans, and our robots would be successful in finding out more patterns in the universe. And joining these dots we would be able to expand our understanding about the unsolved mysteries of cosmos. Till then stay connected!
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