Preview

Discovery of the Fibonacci Sequence

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1170 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Discovery of the Fibonacci Sequence
The Discovery of the Fibonacci Sequence

A man named Leonardo Pisano, who was known by his nickname, "Fibonacci", and named the series after himself, first discovered the Fibonacci sequence around 1200 A.D. The Fibonacci sequence is a sequence in which each term is the sum of the 2 numbers preceding it. The first 10 Fibonacci numbers are: (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89). These numbers are obviously recursive.

Fibonacci was born around 1170 in Italy, and he died around 1240 in Italy, but the exact dates of his birth and death are not known. He played an important role in reviving ancient mathematics and made significant contributions of his own. Even though he was born in Italy, he was educated in North Africa where his father held a diplomatic post. He published a book called Liber abaci, in 1202, after his return to Italy and it was in this book that the Fibonacci numbers were first discussed. It was based on bits of Arithmetic and Algebra that Fibonacci had accumulated during his travels with his father. Liber abaci introduced the Hindu-Arabic place-valued decimal system and the use of Arabic numerals into Europe. Though people were interested, this book was somewhat controversial because it contradicted some of the foremost Roman and Grecian Mathematicians of the time, and even proved many of their calculations to be false.

The Fibonacci sequence is also used in the Pascal triangle. The sum of each diagonal row is a Fibonacci number. They are also in the right sequence.

The Fibonacci sequence has been a big factor in many patterns of things in nature, which is quite fascinating. It's been discovered that the numbers representing the screw-like arrangements of leaves on flowers and trees are very often numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. On many plants, for instance, the number of petals is a Fibonacci number: buttercups have 5 petals; lilies and iris have 3 petals; some delphiniums have 8; corn marigolds have 13 petals; some asters have

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Pow 1 Spiralateral

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I explored the patterns created by length of the sequence used to create the spiralaterals. I also explored the difference in the pattern when the numbers were in a different order.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    the general formula suggested by these four equations shows the sum of sequential integers from (n^2+1) to (n+1)^2 = n^3 + (n+1)^3. Therefore the Sum can written as for all of n∈N, (), (), ()+… +(n = =+ +(n…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leonardo do Pisa’s influence on mathematics has been by and large unnoticed except for his role is broadening the use of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. Leonardo is primarily known for the Fibonacci sequence which is a derivative of a mathematical problem from the Liber Abaci:…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mat 126 Week 1 Assignment

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages

    1 + 2 = 3; 3 + 2 = 5; 5 + 2 = 7; 7 + 2 = 9; ……

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the field of mathematics came Al-Kwarizmi's textbook on Algebra (document 4), which was used throughout Europe and beyond; and also Arabic numerals which were adopted from the Indians and used in a place-value system (document 4). These advancements were made possible because of the knowledge of both Indian and Greek mathematics, which were studied by Muslim scholars before the creation of any Islamic…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ● Archimedes invented “the Beast Number”, (10 to the power of 8 all to the power of 10 to the power of 8) to the power of 10 to the power of 8. All because of his irritability at “people saying it’s impossible to calculate the grains of sand on a beach.” "Archimedes." Famous Scientists.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pierre de Fermat

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    He made many contributions in the field of mathematics. For example, he is considered as one of the ‘fathers’ of analytic geometry, along with Rene’ Descartes. He developed a method for determining maxima, minima, and tangents to various curves that was equivalent to differentiation. He obtained a technique for finding the centers of gravity for various plane and solid figures. Also, he is considered to be one of the founders of the probability theory along with Blaise Pascal. Fermat was the first person known to have evaluated the integral of general power functions. He made contributions in the field of optics and provided a law on light and travel. He wrote a few papers about calculus, before Issac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz were even born. Fermat’s most important work was done in the development of the modern number theory, which was one of his favorite areas of math.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the twelfth century he introduced a decimal point number system by his translations on the Indian numerals. His book “The Compendious Book on Calculations by Completion and Balancing” had the first answer to Arabic linear and quadratic equations. Later he was named the original creator of algebra.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Abacist Research Paper

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The abacist lasted for more than two thousand years. They were the ones that truly introduced the use of mathematics to the public and left their legacy imprinted in books and in the knowledge of everybody that learn from them. Their work extended from the simple task of selling and buying goods to the more complex activities such as banking and engineering. The time line of the abacist of the Renaissance from the two most important schools can be expressed by table 1 below:…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Pi Day

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages

    * Archimedes-One of the major contributions Archimedes made to mathematics was his method for approximating the value of pi. It had long been recognized that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter was constant, and a number of approximations had been given up to that point in time. Archimedes was the first person to calculate the value of pi.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    On June 19th, 1623 in Clermont, France Blaise Pascal was born. Out of four children he next to last to be born, and was the only boy . When Blaise was just a couple of years old he mother died, and got really close to his sisters. His father was a judge in his home town, though he moved to Paris to pursue his personal scientific studies, and to teach his son, who was a child prodigy in 1631. Etienne, his father wanted Blaise to be able to seek out his own curiosity, though some people think that his father did this because he had health issues. Scared that Blaise would get so transfixed on geometry, Etienne did not teach math, just languages. This made Blaise very interested, and at the age of 12, he asked what was geometry about. When his tutor explained what it was, he instantly gave all of his time to learn…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Moreover, math in India was very highly developed. One topic created in India was the Hindu-Arabic System. This system is a decimal place value numeral system. This wasn’t its original name it first originated from the Indian Brahmi numerals. With this they believed in the concept of zero. Another fact is that Baudhayana created the Pythagorean Triples. This includes a formula: a² + b² = c². This formula describes the side lengths of a right triangle. The Indians made many other math topics such as Decimals, Algebra, and…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He invented the Euler- Maclaurin formula and Euler’s method. He found the constant in the Euler- Maclaurin formula. He made the tools that were made to make applying calculus easier. He studied the theory of perfect numbers and gave the world a better…

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics. New York: Dover Publications Ferrara, Lawrence (1991). Philosophy and the Analysis of Music. New York: Greenwood Press. Johnston, Ian (1989).…

    • 1343 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Binomial Theorem

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages

    HISTORY This formula and the triangular arrangement of the binomial coefficients are often attributed to Blaise Pascal, who described them in the 17th century, but they were known to many mathematicians who preceded him. The 4th century B.C. Greek mathematician Euclid mentioned the special case of the binomial theorem for exponent 2 as did the 3rd century B.C. Indian mathematician Pingala to higher orders. A more general binomial theorem and the so-called "Pascal's triangle" were known in the 10th-century A.D. to Indian mathematician Halayudha and Persian mathematician Al-Karaji, and in the 13th century to Chinese mathematician Yang Hui, who all derived similar results. Al-Karaji also provided a mathematical proof of both the binomial theorem and Pascal's triangle, using mathematical induction.…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays