Category: Science

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Fireworks, Math, & the Creator

fireworks

As we celebrated our nation’s 250th birthday last week, many went out to see fireworks. Now’s a great time to stop and think about all the math that goes into planning a firework display, along with the wonder of how God governs creation consistently enough that fireworks are even possible (which math helps us see).

Let’s start with planning the display. Here are a few examples of some math involved!

  • Costs – Say a city has a $100,000 budget for a firework display. That cost might need to include paying a band, bringing in police officers, and other general costs in addition to the costs of the fireworks themselves. Basic math would help compare different options. For example, say they’re selecting different fireworks for a certain 30 seconds of the show.
    • How much would ten $50 fireworks cost (Answer: 10 x $50 = $500)?
    • How much more would it be to get 8 of $75 larger fireworks? (Answer: 8 x $75 = $600; $600 – $500 = $100)
  • Comparing – If one firework show shot off 100,000 fireworks altogether and another did 25,000, how much more did the one do than the other? (Answer: 100,000 – 25,000 = 75,000)
  • Buying Fireworks on Clearance – If you buy a $50 firework on a 40% off clearance, how much would you spend? (Answer: 40% of $50 is $20, or 0.40 x $50 = $20. Thus the final price is $50 – $20 = $30.)

Math is indeed a useful tool that helps with real-life tasks. Now let’s stop and think about the fireworks themselves, as fireworks not only require lots of math in their development and deployment, but our ability to put on firework displays points to our amazing Creator.

Fireworks contain carefully measured mixtures of chemicals. Different compounds containing metal produce different colors when heated, and manufacturers must mix them in just the right proportions (which we study in math!) to create bright, reliable colors. Manufacturers can only declare with confidence that a firework is red, blue, etc., because the same combinations of chemicals consistently produce the same reactions. And why do they do that? Because God created and sustains a consistent world!

Fireworks also include a fuse—a material that burns while the firework travels up so that the shell bursts safely high in the air and not near the ground. Manufacturers have to observe how quickly different materials they could use as a fuse burn up, and then select the right material and length to make the explosion at the desired point. Designing a fuse involves math, and again relies on materials burning in a consistent fashion.

Example: Suppose a fuse burns at 24 seconds per foot. How many feet of fuse are needed for it to burn for 6 seconds? (Answer: 24 sec/ 1ft = 6 sec/? ft24 sec. was divided by 4 to get 6 sec.; 1 ft. divided by 4 is 0.25 ft. Answer is 0.25 ft., or 3 in.)

How do we know what angle to launch a firework? Or how high it will travel before bursting? Again, we observe the consistencies God created and sustains in creation, such as gravity and the predictable path of a projectile. These consistencies can be described algebraically. Computers use lots of advanced math to calculate when to launch each firework and at what angle so the burst occurs at the desired place and exactly the right moment in the music. This is only possible because of the consistent way God governs creation! If He were not holding this world together in a consistent fashion, we’d have no reason to expect fireworks to go off in a consistent way.

fireworks

There’s much, much more we could talk about with fireworks, such as the lift charge needed to get the firework off the ground or the arrangement of stars in a shell, but hopefully that gives you a glimpse into how math helps us with fireworks…and how our ability to use math like this relies on God’s faithfulness in holding all things together. As you think back on the Fourth of July with your children, remember to praise the great Creator and Sustainer of all. And know that the math you learn applies outside of a textbook!

Looking for next year’s math curriculum? Check out our middle and high school courses that show students the purpose to math and how it points to the Creator at every turn! And don’t miss our supplemental resources that you can use with younger ones to bring math to life for them.

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Why High School Math? (Plus AI, Logic, & the Creator)

Does algebra even matter?

As I released my new Consumer Math course, I kept hearing how excited moms were for a high school math that was actually practical. While Consumer Math certainly is that, other high school math should be too!

In all of my math courses, I’ve striven to show students why they’re learning what they’re learning. Granted, algebra might not be something students incorporate into their daily life. However, they use technology based on it daily. For example, how fast will a metal pan heat up? We can use an algebra equation to figure that out.

formulawhere

formula

We can write formulas like the one above because of the consistent way heat transfers into pans based on their heat capacity. And why is creation so consistent? Because a faithful God governs creation in a predictable way! Algebra should be something students finish up with a deeper wow at our amazing Creator.

Now, high school math problems can get challenging and involved. Some multi-step problems can make your head spin. These problems not only prepare students for real-life math problems, but they also teach them to look at a situation where they don’t know what to do and think of different ways they could potentially approach it. That’s a skill we need with real-life non-mathematical problems too!

And then there’s logical thinking skills. If a > b and b > c, we can conclude that a must also be greater than c…but we couldn’t conclude that it’s greater than h, for instance. Why do we care? Learning how to draw logical conclusions helps us think through real-life scenarios.

I’ve put below a video Answers in Genesis recently released that shows an AI, when prompted to answer “according to strict math, logic, and mathematical probability” agreed a biblical Creator makes sense and evolution is foolish. Logic matters…and algebra and geometry help students develop it.

Looking to Help Your Students See Math’s Purpose This Year?
Check out these high school and junior high school programs, complete with optional eCourses that will walk students through the lessons. Also check out the Big Book of Math timeline, usable to add in math’s application and purpose to any curriculum. It is possible for students to see God in math while developing skills that will last a lifetime.

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Math, Our Finely Tuned Bodies, & the Creator

blood pressure

Every time we go to the doctor, the nurse takes a few key measurements: our blood pressure, weight, height (if we’re still in growing years), and temperature. Depending on our issue, they might run some blood work. They do this because our bodies God finely tuned our bodies to operate just right, and these numbers—as well as many others—can clue us in to if something is out of place.

Blood Pressure

Stop and marvel at your heart for just a moment. All without your thinking about it, it pumps blood at just the right pressure through your body, adjusting that pressure automatically based on your activity level. If it beats too high or low, your body stops functioning correctly. Ask someone who’s had that happen and they can tell you what a gift a working heart really is.

Height & Weight

Your height and weight can be used to calculate what we call a BMI (Body Mass Index). Simply divide your weight by your height to find yours. That simple ratio gives us a way to compare if we’re at a healthy weight…and to see if children are growing appropriately.

Temperature

It’s no fun when we run a fever, is it? God designed our bodies to operate within a certain range, and when our immune system has to raise the temperature higher to fight off an infection, we feel it. We don’t often stop to think, though, about how amazing it is that our bodies can control our temperature in the first place. Yet a functioning body temperature is a daily gift from God.

Blood Work

Doctors sometimes need to draw blood work. If you’ve ever looked at blood work results, you might have noticed that it’s filled with numbers of what was in the blood analyzed, as well as normal ranges for that value. If you’ve ever had anything show up abnormal on your blood work, you may know how something simple being off in our blood can cause major problems. For example, if our blood sugar is off as is the case in diabetes, we can experience major health issues.

Stop & Praise

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” Psalm 139:13-14 (ESV)

When we use math to measure the quantities and operations in our bodies, we see that we are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made.” We’re finely tuned on so many levels, from blood pressure to temperature to sugar levels to hormones to oxygenation—the list could go on and on and on. Our amazing bodies should cause us to praise our great Creator!

At the same time, the reality that our bodies don’t always work right should remind us that we live in a fallen world—a world gone wrong because of sin. In God’s original creation, Adam and Eve’s bodies worked just right all the time. Sin changed that. Now we’re all in the process of dying, and our bodies often don’t stay perfectly tuned. Sin is serious, and we’ve all sinned. We desperately need the Savior, Jesus Christ; through faith in Him, we can look forward to a perfect world again with new bodies that do work perfectly.

Next time you think about math, remember that it helps us explore God’s creation—including our bodies. As it does, it points us to God’s amazing design—and reminds us of the seriousness of sin. Pause and praise the God who both knit you together and chose to become a human to save you from sin and bring you to Himself and a perfect world again.

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Math, Electricity, & the Creator

electricity

I’m excited to have just finished the draft of a full-color, 8.5 in by 14 in by 15 ft math timeline, on which students will be able to watch math in action throughout history—and see how math points us to the Creator in the process. Below is a sneak peek into just a few of the facts students will learn. Stay tuned for publication information!

Electricity—we take it for granted and use it countless times a day. Turning on lights, using a computer, microwaving those leftovers, looking at a digital clock, cranking down the AC, opening the refrigerator, doing a tub of wash—the list of daily uses of electricity or electrical devices could go on and on.

But did you know it’s math that helps us explore electricity and design devices like lights and computers? A glance back at history reveals a lot of math—and points us to the Creator.

Back in 1785, A man named Charles-Augustin de Coulomb discovered a mathematical relationship between the force and distance between electric charged particles by doing experiments. His result can be expressed algebraically like shown below.

In other words, the force produced by electricity can be described mathematically!

Michael Faraday

Later, many other men would do experiments and discover more of the ways electricity works. One key discoverer was a man named Michael Faraday, who realized that magnets can generate electricity and invented the first electric generator. Once again, math was used in this design. In fact, the relationship between the electrical voltage, the number of coils of wire, the change in something called magnetic flux, and the time can be described like shown below.

Faraday, like many other great scientists/inventors, saw creation (which math helped them explore) as pointing to God. Faraday wrote,

“The book of nature which we have to read is written by the finger of God.”

Sit back and think about it for a minute. Even at the microscopic level, electricity (which later scientists would realize is the flow of electrons) operates in a consistent enough fashion to describe it with formulas that we can rely on to work to such a degree that devices like light bulbs and computers can be built around it. Why is creation that consistent? Because a faithful, consistent Creator governs all things.

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Math, Fireflies, Light Bulbs, and the Creator’s Design

fireflies

Many of us have been fascinated at one time or another by tiny lights dotting the backyard on summer nights. Fireflies, lightning bugs, or whatever you call them are fascinating to watch…and perhaps try to catch. What many don’t stop to think about, however, is how amazingly designed these creatures are.

Light Bulbs

To better understand the marvels of fireflies, let’s pause and take a look at light bulbs for a minute. If you’ve ever put your hand near a light bulb while it’s on, you know that in addition to light, light bulbs produce heat (most of which is infrared radiation). We can use math to measure what’s called the efficacy of the light bulb—that is, how much light they produce compared to how much power they use. The higher the efficacy, the less power is being wasted in heat.

To find the efficacy, divide the lumens produced (a lumen is a unit of measure for light) by the watts (a watt is a unit of measure for power). We could write that as a formula like this:

Efficacy = Lumens divided by Watts

Or if we wanted to save our hands and use letters, we could write it like this:

E = L divided by W

We could even use a fraction to represent the division:

E = L/W

Note that we just used algebra! We’re simply using letters as symbols to stand for the efficacy, lumens, and watts of any light bulb. We can write formulas like this because God created and sustains a consistent universe.

If you run to your closet and pull out a package of light bulbs, you can measure the efficacy by inserting the lumens and watts listed on the bulb into the formula. For example, let’s consider a bulb I have in a lamp in my office. It says it is a 53 W (W is an abbreviation for watt) bulb that produces 850 lumens. Leaving units off for simplicity and inserting these numbers into the formula, we’d get this:

850/53 approximately equals 16.04

Fun assignment: Find the efficacy of the light bulbs listed in the table on step 6 of this page. Notice that some bulbs are more efficient than others! Then take a look at this chart showing the efficacy  of different bulbs.

The higher the efficacy, the more the power is going into making light and less into making heat/non-visible radiation. Some bulbs produce more light with less power than others, but they all end up wasting a good deal of power. According to what I could find, an ideal green light that doesn’t waste power in heat would have an efficacy of about 683. That’s a much greater number than the 16.04 efficacy of the light bulb in my office!

What percent of the power is actually used to product light? To find that, we need to find the efficiency, which we’ll define “as the ratio of the total light power to the total power.”[i] The efficiency can be rather tricky to figure out, as light bulbs don’t come labeled with how much power goes towards light, but one way to approximate it is to divide the efficacy (in lumens per watt) of the bulb by 683 (the efficacy of ideal green light, which is the highest efficacy possible and thus can be used to approximate the total power while we use the efficacy to approximate the power used to produce the light).

Efficiency = efficacy/683

Plugging in the efficacy we found for my office light bulb would give us the following:

Efficiency = 16.04/683 approximately equals 0.0235

If we express this as a percent by multiplying by 100 and adding a % sign, we’d get approximately 2.35%. That means only about 2.35% of the power this bulb uses goes towards making a light; in other words, the other 97.65% goes toward making heat/non-visible radiation. We would say this light bulb is about 2.35% efficient.

Fun assignment: Check out this table to view the efficiency of various lights…and calculate the efficiency of some lightbulbs in your closet by first finding the efficacy, then dividing that by 683, and finally expressing that result as a percent. Notice all the math you’re using!

Fireflies

Now, fireflies don’t plug into an electrical outlet or battery to produce light. Instead, a firefly produces light using chemicals. Yes, that’s right: God created these little bugs to have a mini chemical factory on board! These chemicals prove useful to man as well—one of the chemicals used has been useful in “biomedical research.”[ii]

The chemical reaction in the firefly produces energy…which is what powers their lights. When we talk about the efficiency of the lights fireflies produce, we’ll talk in terms of energy. Note, though, that power and energy are related–power is the rate of use of energy. We could say that efficient bulbs use less power and less energy.

Unlike man-made light bulbs, the firefly produces light without wasting much energy at all—sources indicate almost 100% of the energy turns into light[iii]—in other words, it’s almost 100% efficient. Compared to the 2.35% efficiency we found for the light bulb in my office, that’s amazing! Yet if the firefly didn’t produce light efficiently, they’d heat up and burn to death.[iv] Instead, God designed them to produce “the most efficient light in the world.”[v]

Conclusion

Next time you head outside and see the light from fireflies, ponder God’s magnificent design. Think about the wisdom and care God took with His creation, even giving us light displays at night made from tiny living chemical factories. And remember that math helps us explore, describe, and better appreciate His amazing world…as well as to improve inventions (like light bulbs). We’re able to explore and design because God made us in His image. That same God wants each of us to know Him and live in His presence forever.

 

[i] Debbie Hadley, “How Do Fireflies Light Up?” ThoughtCo., https://www.thoughtco.com/how-do-fireflies-light-1968122 (accessed June 13, 2022).

[ii] Yong Xu, Plant Factory Using Artificial Light, 2019, 2.1.6.1, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/luminous-efficacy

[iii]National Pest Management Association, “The Science Behind Fireflies: 6 Things You Didn’t Know About Lightning Bugs,” https://www.pestworld.org/news-hub/pest-articles/the-science-behind-fireflies/ (accessed June 13, 2022) and Debbie Hadley, “10 Fascinating Facts About Fireflies,” ThoughtCo., https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-fireflies-1968117  (accessed June 13, 2022).

[iv] Debbie Hadley, “10 Fascinating Facts About Fireflies,” ThoughtCo., https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-fireflies-1968117  (accessed June 13, 2022).

[v] National Pest Management Association, “The Science Behind Fireflies: 6 Things You Didn’t Know About Lightning Bugs,” https://www.pestworld.org/news-hub/pest-articles/the-science-behind-fireflies/ (accessed June 13, 2022).

 

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Math, Sickness, & the Fall

sickness

Math probably isn’t the first thing you’re thinking about when you don’t feel well. Yet you might be surprised at how much you may find yourself using math when facing an illness.

  • When Can I Take ____ Next? When can I take that next does of pain medicine/cough suppressant/allergy pill? That question is on our minds a lot when battling a disease. And we use math to figure it out! If we took medicine at 10 am and we can take a pill every 4 hours, then we next need to take it at 2 pm, as that is 4 hours later. Keeping track of time’s passing is an application of math—an application, by the way, that is based on the earth’s rotation that God set up. Our 24-hour clock ties with the pattern of night and day He created.
  • How Many Days Left? How many days till I feel better if the cold started 3 days ago and typically lasts 7 days? 7 – 3 = 4, so hopefully just 4. Till what day do I have to quarantine if I was told to quarantine for 10 days starting on the 11th? 10 + 11 = 21, so till the 21st.
  • How Much Should I Take? If I was told to drink 70% of my body weight in ounces per day and I weigh 120 pounds, how many ounces of water do I need to drink? 0.7 x 120 = 84, so 84 ounces each day. If the glasses I use hold about 10 ounces of water, how many glasses does that mean? Well 84 10 = 8.4, so 8 and almost a half of those glasses. Or say I was told to take 4,000 IUs (international units) of Vitamin D a day, and I found a liquid that contains 500 IUs in a drop. How many drops would I need to take? Well, 4,000  500 is 8, so 8 drops.

Note that we perform simple math all the time without thinking about it. And aren’t you glad that to figure out how many glasses of water equals 84 ounces you don’t have to actually measure out 84 ounces and pour it into 8 and a half glasses? Instead, you can use math to know that 84 divided 10 equals 8.4. You can only do that, though, because creation is consistent. Division operates consistently. Why? Because a faithful, consistent God is holding creation together. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and the other “fixed order” He created continue because He is a covenant-keeping God (Jeremiah 33:25-26 ESV). Now that’s a good thing to remember next time you’re sneezing your way through a cold.

Why did God create snot? I was recently asked that question by a little girl, and it’s a great one! Sickness wasn’t part of God’s original creation. There was no sickness or death until man sinned, rebelling against our Creator. Now we live in a fallen world. But praise God He designed our bodies to produce snot to help rid our bodies of bacteria and viruses. And praise Him that He sent Jesus to buy us back for Himself so that one day, if our faith is in Jesus, we’ll be in a world with no more sickness again.

 

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Hurricanes, Math, & the Savior

Hurricane

Hurricanes can be devastating, as so many know personally. But we often don’t stop to think about the role math plays in tracking hurricanes, helping to save lives and property from their grip, and assisting those affected. Nor do we think through how much hurricanes shout out humanity’s need for a Savior.

Below are some ideas on these themes that I hope will prove helpful to you with your children/students.

Hurricanes & Math

  • Tracking Hurricanes – Every hurricane season, the weather news is filled with updates on developing storms and hurricanes and predictions about where that hurricane might impact. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predictions are based on data collected from satellites, which is in itself an application of math. Pressure, latitude and longitude, speed—all these are measurements. As I’m writing this, the NOAA lists this data on Hurricane Larry—notice the numbers!
    5:00 AM AST Fri Sep 3
    Location: 14.6°N 38.9°W
    Moving [speed]: WNW at 20 mph
    Min pressure [minimum central pressure]: 982 mb
    Max sustained [winds]: 90 mph
  • Giving Warning ­– Advanced warning of when a hurricane will touch shore can help save many lives and property. And math is used in that process! The NOAA explains about the models used to do this. A simple summary is that models (think mathematical equations) can be based on statistics (i.e., think historical measurements), knowledge about the atmosphere (i.e., what we know of the consistent way God governs creation), a combination, or on other models.
  • Rescuing & Helping ­– After a hurricane strikes, there’s a lot of cleanup! Math proves helpful in assessing the damage (you’ll hear about how many died or how deep the water was or how much property was lost) and figuring out how to allocate resources to help. Imagine trying to recover from a hurricane without any math. No one would know how many people were helping where…or how many supplies had been (or needed to be) sent where.

Hurricanes & the Savior

Every time a hurricane strikes, we not only use a lot of math, but we should also be reminded of how desperately we need a Savior. Their very existence screams out that the world is no longer very good (Genesis 1:31)—when sin entered the world, it brought with it death and suffering. God has allowed us to endure a tiny taste of life where He removes His protective hand in the hopes that we’ll come to Him and avoid eternal wrath—a wrath against which, like a hurricane, we can’t stand. The Bible warns that, while He is longsuffering, hoping that we’ll turn to Him and receive eternal life as a gift, there’s coming a day when it will be too late and He will pour out His wrath on the earth.

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury,  and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh;  and those slain by the Lord shall be many.” Isaiah 66:15-16 (ESV)

That wrath is against sin—and we all have sinned. That’s why we need a Savior! And God gave us One. He poured His wrath out on Jesus, and if we’ll but believe in Him, we will be saved from the wrath to come…and have eternal life in a perfect world without the suffering and death in this one.

Hurricanes also point us to God’s power to both punish and save. We crumble helpless before storms, yet Jesus spoke, and a storm stopped (Mark 4:35-41). The power of a hurricane pales in comparison with the power of God. And that should make us tremble if our faith is not in Christ and run to Him for salvation—but should give us tremendous peace and comfort if our faith is in Him, as if we’re in Christ, that powerful God is our loving Heavenly Father who is with us in every storm of life.

Practical Idea to Use with Your Child/Students

To give students a glimpse into the math involved in tracking hurricanes, go to https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ and look at stats on a hurricane two days in a row. Have your child use math to figure out how the speed (i.e., moving), minimum central pressure, and maximum sustained winds changed. Then have them look at a map with latitude and longitude marked and have them find the different locations of the hurricane; for example, the map below shows the location given above for hurricane Larry. You could even have them plot a hurricane’s position over several days!

Latitude/Longtitude

Point out to them how math helps us outside of a textbook. Remind them we’re able to use math like this because God made us in His image and gave us dominion over the earth. Then talk with them about how hurricanes remind us of how desperately we need a Savior.

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Hot Air Balloons, Algebra, & the Creator

hot air balloons

Hot air balloons have always fascinated me, and this last weekend I got a chance to see some up close. They’re huge—and it’s incredible to watch them float up and down by increasing or decreasing a flame of fire at the base.

But you know what’s even more amazing? The fact that day in and day out, the air in these balloons responds consistently to the heat from the flame used to control their movement. Let’s use math for a minute to look at some consistencies God both created and sustains in the atmosphere—consistencies that make hot air balloons possible.

Density & Temperature

For starters, there’s the Ideal Gas Law. This law is simply a way of describing the consistent relationship between the atmospheric pressure (P), the density of the air (ρ), the gas constant (R), and the temperature (T). Using letters to stand for each of these, we can describe the consistent relationship between them like this:*

P = ρRT

Now, using algebra (which is based on creation operating so consistently that we can multiply, divide, etc., by equal quantities on both sides of the equation, and know it will work even if we don’t know the actual values), we can rearrange this equation like this:

ρ=P/(RT)

Now we know that the density of air (ρ)—how tightly packed the molecules are—depends on the atmospheric pressure (P), the gas constant (R), and the temperature (T). Since the atmospheric pressure and gas constant are constant for a specific area on earth, we can view them as constant values and realize that as the temperature (T) changes, the density (ρ) will too!

In other words, if we change the temperature inside the hot air balloon, it will change the density of the air inside that balloon (increasing temperature decreases the density, and vice versa). Why do we care? Well, let’s look at another consistency…

Buoyancy, Density, & Volume

The buoyancy force (the force that makes the balloon float) changes as the density of the air inside the balloon changes…meaning that we can use temperature to change a balloon’s ability to float! The buoyancy force (FB) of a hot air balloon equals the difference between the density of the air outside of the balloon (ρa) and that inside (ρ), times the volume of the balloon (V), times the local acceleration due to gravity (g).

FB=(ρa – ρ)Vg

Look at that equation and think about what would get a higher buoyancy force. The lower the density inside the balloon (ρ), the greater the force will be, as when we subtract it from the outside density (where the air is not being heated but staying relatively the same temperature), we’ll get a greater number to multiply by the volume and the acceleration due to gravity. Thus getting a lower density (which we do by heating up the air inside the balloon) gives the balloon a greater buoyancy force (which helps it float).

Now, there’s another variable that affects the balloon’s ability to float.  Look back at the buoyancy equation and notice the V, which stands for volume.

FB=(ρa – ρ)Vg

The larger the volume (V), the greater the buoyancy force will be! So large balloons will float better than small ones (assuming you can evenly heat all the air inside to a temperature warmer than the outside air). And now you know why hot air balloons are so large!

(You might wonder how the g in the equation influences the buoyancy. The g in the equations depends on the consistent way God causes gravity to operate, so we can’t change it. It’s a fixed value—about 9 m/s^2 close to the surface of the earth.)

Getting the Balloon to Float

Besides the buoyancy force, the only other force acting on a balloon is the weight of the balloon, the basket, and anyone or anything in the basket. We can describe this force algebraically like this:

Fg=mg,
where m is the total mass of the balloon, basket, and everything in the basket and g is again the local gravitational constant.

Once the air in the balloon has reached a temperature such that the buoyancy force is greater than the gravitational force, or FB > Fg, the net force on the balloon will be upward and the balloon will start to rise. That’s why when we heat up the air in the balloon and it becomes less dense, making FB > F g, it rises in the air!

The Consistency of Creation & the Creator

Hot air balloons are one example of how men, using their God-given abilities to explore God’s creation—have utilized the consistencies God created and sustains around us to develop a useful device (in this case, a balloon that floats). But don’t miss the miracle of our ability to use hot air balloons. We can only get in a hot air balloon with confidence because atmospheric pressure and buoyancy operates in a consistent way, day after day, year after year. While individual balloons may have different volumes, densities, masses, and forces, the relationship between them stays the same no matter what the individual values. Without the consistencies of creation, we would be unable to use hot air balloons. It’s this consistency of creation that makes modern science (and hot air balloons)–as well as algebra–useful.

Yet why is creation so consistent that we can describe how it will operate with letters and know that relationship will hold true, no matter the actual values we plug in?

The Bible gives us an answer: because of the biblical, consistent, faithful God. Jesus is faithfully upholding all things. We have a faithful Creator God.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:3 (esv)

Transform Your How Your Students See Pre-Algebra and Algebra!

Want to teach algebra from this perspective? Check out our pre-algebra curriculum, and stay tuned for Algebra 2 next year! In fact, Algebra 2 students will get to explore hot air balloons in more depth as they explore God’s creation using math.

*Note: You may have seen this equation before written PV=nRT, where V is volume and n the number or mass of gas molecules. Since ρ = n/V, they’re actually the same equation.

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Math, Man on the Moon, & the Creator

Photo Credit: NASAThis Saturday, July 20, 2019, marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

This achievement would never have been possible apart from the Creator’s faithful sustaining hand, and men using the ability He gave them to use math to explore His creation.

  • Day after day, God holds creation together in such a consistent way that we can use math to describe that consistency. For example, we can describe the force due to gravity as gravitywhere G is a constant value, the ms are 2 masses, and the r is the distance between those masses. There are many, many formulas used in exploration of space—each one is a way of describing a consistency God created and faithfully sustains.
  • By describing the consistencies around us mathematically, we can use math to figure out how to send a spacecraft into space. For example, using algebra we can calculate the acceleration due to gravity that the spacecraft has to overcome. Using more math, we can figure out how fast the spacecraft has to go to escape from the pull of gravity into space, which can be described like this:Escape Velocity(see “Gravitational Escape Velocity with Saturn V Rocket” for more information). Then we can use math to figure out how to design that spacecraft to do that!

Whole books could be spent describing the math behind getting man to the moon. The point here is that modern science (including the space program) rests entirely on there being consistencies in creation (which enable us to design a spacecraft so it can escape the earth’s pull—if creation weren’t consistent, we wouldn’t know ahead of time if the spacecraft would really make it). And those consistencies in turn exist because a faithful, consistent Creator is holding all things together.

Jeremiah 33:25-26a (esv) says, “Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant.” God has established His covenant with the “fixed order” of heaven and earth—with the consistencies all around us. Here He points to that very consistency as a reminder that He is a God who keeps His covenants. He will do all He’s said in His Word—saving all who believe upon Jesus, and punishing those who reject His gift of salvation.

As you remember the landing on the moon, lift your eyes higher to the Creator of it all. Truly, creation declares His praises and reminds us to take head to His Word.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” Psalm 19:1–3 (kjv)

Note: Our upcoming Algebra 2 book will give students the opportunity to explore consistencies such as  and see more up closely how math helps us describe God’s creation, pointing us to the Creator. Be sure to check out the math curriculum we offer for other grades too!