Notes

32 pages : colour illustrations Contents includes: Patterns of life -- Packing -- Spirals -- Branching -- Cracking -- Buckling -- Sunburst -- Fractals -- Light -- Waves -- Nets -- Symmetry -- Meandering -- Spheres -- Ovals -- Coordinated flocking -- Tessellations -- Crystals -- Fibonacci -- Polygons -- Camouflage -- How people use patterns -- Pattern activities Summary: Nature displays an endless variety of eye-catching patterns in a variety of form, colour and texture. Patterns help us understand how energy flows through nature's network of complex systems. Patterns show us how nature's organisms survive, how they make things and how life is organized and connected on our planet - Earth. Nature's patterns give us an introduction and understanding of mathematics. She packs efficiently, ties knots, builds columns, makes hexagons, uses spirals and nets and bubbles. But thinking about and seeing the mathematics of nature requires practice. So open your eyes and discover a new way of looking at the world around you. (Back cover)