Answer:
Nature is an unstoppable force, and a beautiful one at that. Everywhere you look, the natural world is laced with stunning patterns that can be described with mathematics. From bees to blood vessels, ferns to fangs, math can explain how such beauty emerges.
Math is often described this way, as a language or a tool that humans created to describe the world around them, with precision.
But there's another school of thought which suggests math is actually what the world is made of; that nature follows the same simple rules, time and time again, because mathematics underpins the fundamental laws of the physical world.
This would mean math existed in nature long before humans invented it, according to philosopher Sam Baron of the Australian Catholic University.
"If mathematics explains so many things we see around us, then it is unlikely that mathematics is something we've created," Baron writes.
Instead, if we think of math as an essential component of nature that gives structure to the physical world, as Baron and others suggest, it might prompt us to reconsider our place in it rather than reveling in our own creativity.
