For homework tonight, read this page.  Follow the links and read those pages as well.

1.  Patterns - Scroll down to the Mathematics section.  Read the Mathematics section.

2.  Math is Fun - Common Number Patterns - Read entire page

3.  Pascal's Triangle

4.  Read the quotes below...

5.  Optional:  For more fun, google Pascal's Triangle and click on images.  Check out all of the cool color patterns that can be made from the triangle.

In mathematics, if a pattern occurs, we can go on to ask, Why does it occur? What does it signify? And we can find answers to these questions. In fact, for every pattern that appears, a mathematician feels he ought to know why it appears.

     - W.W. Sawyer

Mathematics, in the common lay view, is a static discipline based on formulas…But outside the public view, mathematics continues to grow at a rapid rate…the guid to this growth is not calculation and formulas, but an open ended search for pattern.   

 
What humans do with the language of mathematics is to describe patterns… To grow mathematically children must be exposed to a rich variety of patterns appropriate to their own lives through which they can see variety, regularity, and interconnections.      

     - Lynn Arthur Steen, from On the Shoulder of Giants

Though the structures and patterns of mathematics reflect the structure of, and resonate in, the human mind every bit as much as do the structures and patterns of music, human beings have developed no mathematical equivalent to a pair of ears. Mathematics can only be “seen” with the “eyes of the mind”. It is as if we had no sense of hearing, so that only someone able to sight-read music would be able to appreciate its patterns and harmonies. 

     - Keith Devlin, from Mathematics: the Science of Patterns.

If you would like, watch the video from today.  You could even show it to someone.  Ask them what they think mathematics is, then show them the video!  

Math in Nature - YouTube