Patterns

"The evidence is right under our noses, but it's never grouped together, so that insights can be drawn from it." -- John Taylor Gatto

We spend a lot of time talking about learning to recognize patterns in the Pyramid Project. Each week we share the patterns we noticed during the week, as well as the questions we wondered about.

Noticing patterns is an important skill. The evidence of universal gravity was right in front of everyone's noses, but only Newton saw the pattern and recognized gravity as a universal law, affecting the heavens as well as the earth.

Patterns can lead to more knowledge as we examine them. They will often lead naturally to "Why?" type of questions which lead on to further investigation and discovery. Questions we might ask about a pattern are:

• Why is this pattern so? Is there an underlying principle from which this pattern follows?
• What caused me to recognize this pattern in the first place?
• Are there exceptions to this pattern?
• How can I put this pattern or knowledge to use?

Patterns often relate to groups of objects or repeated events. Things can be grouped into patterns in various ways:

• All these things follow this pattern, or it happens every time.
• Things can be split into (2 or more) groups, and this is the difference.
• This thing is different from others, because...
• Patterns are also found by studying a single object is great detail.

Example

Pattern: the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

Why is this a pattern? Because it happens every day, without fail.

Why is this pattern so? Because the earth rotates on it's axis. (Let's study some astronomy. Notice how the earth's tilt causes the seasons, etc.)

How can I use this pattern? To determine the directions East and West. To estimate the approximate time of day. With a good chronometer, to determine longitude at sea.

Are there exceptions to this pattern? Several are noted in the Bible; perhaps we should read about them.

What else can we notice about the pattern? The sun doesn't rise and set at the same point in the east or west every day -- aha! another pattern, and the learning process repeats.