Word: mathematician
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Pine cones. 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...
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...
...privilege. An unfortunate result is mind-numbing complexity: the present Revenue Code (1,200 pages) runs longer than War and Peace. Albert Einstein called the federal income tax "the hardest thing in the world to understand." Contemplating his own return, he remarked: "This is too difficult for a mathematician, It takes a philosopher...
...frequent are the big splurgy parties, complete with animal when appropriate, with which he used to greet the beginning of a new zodiacal sign. For the most part, he stays home, attended by a butler ("Mr. Libra") and a cook ("Miss Virgo"), and works with four secretaries and a mathematician. "I don't like to go out," he says, "because I would hate to miss a call from someone who wanted my help...
There's a story, probably apocryphal, that I'm fond of about the great mathematician Hilbert. He was attending a conference in Copenhagen, and they took him to see the very celebrated bridge they have there. He admired it duly and then said, "It's astonishing! Wonderful! It's Exactly like the bridge at Hamburg." At which the local Danes, his hosts, were much affronted because there's no bridge at all like that in Hamburg. They said, "How is it like a bridge at Hamburg?" Hilbert answered, "Why it goes from this side to that side and the river...