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Fibonacci

Fibonacci, also known as Leonardo da Pisa, was an Italian mathematician born in 1175 AD who introduced the decimal number system and Fibonacci sequence to the Latin world. The Fibonacci sequence begins with 0 and 1, with each subsequent number being the sum of the previous two numbers. This sequence appears often in nature, such as the pattern of spirals in pinecones. Fibonacci also made remarkable calculations, such as finding the positive solution to a cubic equation 300 years before anyone else could. He is best known for introducing the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio, denoted by phi, which has appeared often in geometry and architecture through history.

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26 views

Fibonacci

Fibonacci, also known as Leonardo da Pisa, was an Italian mathematician born in 1175 AD who introduced the decimal number system and Fibonacci sequence to the Latin world. The Fibonacci sequence begins with 0 and 1, with each subsequent number being the sum of the previous two numbers. This sequence appears often in nature, such as the pattern of spirals in pinecones. Fibonacci also made remarkable calculations, such as finding the positive solution to a cubic equation 300 years before anyone else could. He is best known for introducing the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio, denoted by phi, which has appeared often in geometry and architecture through history.

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Soke Cheng Tham
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Fibonacci, or more correctly Leonardo da Pisa, was born in Pisa in 1175AD.

He was the son of a Pisan merchant who also served as a customs officer in North Africa. He travelled widely in Barbary (Algeria) and was later sent on business trips to Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily and Provence. In 1200 he returned to Pisa and used the knowledge he had gained on his travels to write Liber abaci in which he introduced the Latin-speaking world to the decimal number system. The first chapter of Part 1 begins: These are the nine figures of the Indians: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. With these nine figures, and with this sign 0 which in Arabic is called zephirum, any number can be written, as will be demonstrated. Root finding Fibonacci was capable of quite remarkable calculating feats. He was able to find the positive solution of the following cubic equation: He carried out all his working using the Babylonian system of mathematics which uses base 60. He gave the result as 1;22,7,42,33,4,40 which is equivalent to:

It is not known how he obtained this, but it was 300 years before anybody else could find such accurate results. It is quite interesting that Fibonacci gave the result in this way at the same time as telling everybody else to use the decimal number system! Fibonacci sequence Fibonacci is perhaps best known for a simple series of numbers, introduced in Liber abaci and later named theFibonacci numbers in his honour. The series begins with 0 and 1. After that, use the simple rule: Add the last two numbers to get the next. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987,... You might ask where this came from? In Fibonacci's day, mathematical competitions and challenges were common. For example, in 1225 Fibonacci took part in a tournament at Pisa ordered by the emperor himself, Frederick II. It was in just this type of competition that the following problem arose: Beginning with a single pair of rabbits, if every month each productive pair bears a new pair, which becomes productive when they are 1 month old, how many rabbits will there be after n months? The Golden Section A special value, closely related to the Fibonacci series, is called the golden section. This value is obtained by taking the ratio of successive terms in the Fibonacci series:

Ratio of successive Fibonacci terms. If you plot a graph of these values you'll see that they seem to be tending to a limit. This limit is actually the positive root of a quadratic equation (see box) and is called the golden section, golden ratio or sometimes thegolden mean.

The golden section is normally denoted by the Greek letter phi. In fact, the Greek mathematicians of Plato's time (400BC) recognized it as a significant value and Greek architects used the ratio 1:phi as an integral part of their designs, the most famous of which is the Parthenon in Athens.

The Parthenon in Athens. Phi and geometry Phi also occurs surprisingly often in geometry. For example, it is the ratio of the side of a regular pentagon to its diagonal. If we draw in all the diagonals then they each cut each other

with the golden ratio too (see picture). The resulting pentagram describes a star which forms part of many of the flags of the world.

The Pentagram.

The pentagram star features in many of the world's flags, including the European Union and the United States of America. (Source: Flags of the world.) Fibonacci in maths The Fibonacci numbers are studied as part of number theory and have applications in the counting of mathematical objects such as sets, permutations and sequences and to computer science.

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