Starting with maths: Patterns and formulas

Introduction

Patterns occur everywhere in art, nature, science and especially mathematics. Being able to recognise, describe and use these patterns is an important skill that helps you to tackle a wide variety of different problems. This unit explores some of these patterns ranging from ancient number patterns to the latest mathematical research. It also looks at some useful practical applications. You will see how to describe some patterns mathematically as formulas and how these can be used to solve problems both by hand and using a computer spreadsheet. At the end of the unit, you can even have a go at an unsolved mathematical problem! Between 2000 and 2002, a $1 000 000 prize was offered for its solution – that's just to show you that there is still a lot of very exciting mathematics to be discovered and also that everybody – you, me and all great mathematicians – do get stuck with mathematics somewhere!

You won't need a computer to do this though!

This unit is from our archive and is an adapted extract from the Open University course Starting with maths (Y162), which is no longer in presentation. If you wish to study formally with The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in the Openings Programme [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .