Looking for a Clue? Find the Pattern!

Scientists every day try to figure things out. What causes something? Why do certain things happen when you do one thing and don't happen when you do another?

It is a mystery! Ah, but find the pattern and you have a clue to crack the mystery! Once you have found the pattern, you may also be able to find an equation to predict what will happen!

First of all - what is a pattern?

It is something that happens again and again. Phillips Petroleum Polymer Scientist Paul DesLauries uses a number table to illustrate this.

On a piece of paper, from left to right, write the numbers one through ten. In row two, write 11 through 20. Continue until you have a table with 10 rows, 10 columns of the numbers 1 through 100.

Now the fun begins! Start with something simple:

Look at number 81 and all the boxes on the upward diagonal from left to right (72, 63, etc.). If you add the digits (7 + 2 or 6 + 3) in each box you will find the sum equals the number in the top row: 9. This pattern will work through out the table.

Now let's look at a pattern and write an equation to describe the pattern or scientific relationship between the numbers.

Start at 93. Working in a right to left diagonal, add the digits. 9 + 3 = 12. 8 + 2 = 10. What is happening? Things seems to be decreasing by 2 as you travel along the table!

How would you describe this using numbers? Well, you could call the sum of the two digits in the first box "x" (9 + 3 = x). You could then say x - 2 will equal the sum (or "y") of the digits in the next box. Now with the equation x - 2 = y , you can predict the answer or sum of the digits in the third box.

It is really easy. Do it once slowly and you will have it!

You don't have to guess the sum of the digits in each next box; you have not only found the pattern, you have formed the equation. There is no longer a mystery. In a right to left upward diagonal, you can predict the sum of the digits in the following box with the equation x + 2 = y.

Figuring out what will happen in advance based on patterns found in the present is SCIENCE!