Word: fibonacci
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Stock-market quotations. Sunflowers. Classical architecture. Reproduction of bees. Roman poetry. What do they have in common? In one way or another, these and many more creations of nature or works of man all seem to be related to a sequence of numbers named for 13th century Mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci. The earnest mathematics buffs of the California-based Fibonacci Association keep examining the phenomenon. The more they investigate, members insist, the more convinced they become that Fibonacci numbers pervade the world...
...intriguing sequence was first mentioned by Fibonacci in his book Liber Abaci, which was published in Pisa in A.D. 1202. To solve a hypothetical problem about the multiplication of rabbits,-he used the numerical series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, etc. Each number following the first 1 consisted of the sum of the two previous numbers. Fibonacci attached no great significance to the sequence, and it was generally ignored through the years by all but dedicated mathematicians. Then, in the early 1960s, Brother Alfred Brousseau, who teaches math at St. Mary's College...
Golden Rectangle. There is more than enough Fibonacci lore to fill each issue. "We have a backlog of articles," says Brother Alfred proudly, "and we've been accepted by the mathematical fraternity." Mathematician Verner Hoggatt Jr., editor of the Quarterly, has gone to the extent of establishing the Fibonacci Bibliographical and Research Center at San Jose State College. He tours schools to lecture on Fibonacci numbers, vigorously advocates their use in teaching and has compiled a remarkable dossier on Fibonaccia...
Among the material in his files are research papers showing that there are Fibonacci numerical patterns in the meter of works by Virgil and other Roman poets, and Fibonacci relationships between the different sizes of mosaic patterns in the floors of Greek and Roman ruins. There are studies showing that the ratio between any two successive larger Fibonacci numbers is 1 to 1.618-the same as the ratio between the sides of the "golden rectangle," a form that is traditionally used by artists and architects to produce effects that are most pleasing...
Mystical Connection. In nature, male bees reproduce Fibonaccially, and the number of spiral floret formations visible in many sunflowers, spiraled scales on a pine cone and segments on the surface of a pineapple have been found to match Fibonacci numbers. The pattern of the branching of many trees, the position of leaves on the branches, and petal formation of many flowers are also described by numbers in the Fibonacci series...