What is Mathematics?

Class 6 Maths · Chapter 1: Patterns in Mathematics · NCERT Ganita Prakash section 1.1

Learn

Look at a tiled floor, a sunflower, or the dates on a calendar: they all have patterns. Maths is about spotting patterns like these and asking why they happen.

Look at these beads: coral, blue, blue, coral, blue, blue … The same group of three keeps repeating. So we can say what comes next: a blue bead.

Numbers make patterns too: 3, 6, 9, 12 … Each number is 3 more than the one before. So the next number is 15.

12 + 3 = 15

Pictures can grow in a pattern. Each new picture adds one more row of dots (coral): 1, 3, 6, 10 … Once we see the rule, we can predict the next picture: it has 15 dots.

10 + 5 = 15

Once we know why a pattern works, we can use it in new places. Calendar patterns tell us on which day a festival falls next year; patterns in how things move help engineers build bridges and send satellites into space. That is why maths is both an art and a science.

Explore: a frog jumps along the number line from 0, always the same size of jump. Change the jump and look at where it lands.

1. Choose a jump so that the frog lands on 12.
2. Now make it land on both 12 and 18.
3. Land on 21 but not on 14.

Remember

• Mathematics is the search for patterns, and for why they happen.
• Once we know the rule of a pattern, we can predict what comes next.

Quick check

What does mathematics look for?

1. Only answers to sums
2. Patterns, and why they happen
3. Only big numbers
4. Only shapes

Think about it

Can you think of other ways mathematics helps us in everyday life?

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.