LEONARDO FIBONACCI
Fibonacci was known for many things. He was best known for the Fibonacci Numbers,
which is a number sequence that he had discovered while solving a problem about
rabbits. There is a lot more that we will talk about him and his discoveries
which are now coming up.
From 529 until 1500 A.D. there were no big improvements in european mathematics.
Except for Fibonacci, who was a great 13th century mathematician. He was born in
Pisa, Italy, and was the son of a pisan merchant.
Fibonacci was best known as Leonardo of Pisa.
His father was also a customs officer for the North African city of Bugia. Since
Fibonacci was the son of a merchant, he was able go travel freely all over the
Byzantine Empire. Merchants at the time were immuned, so they were allowed to
move about freely. This allowed him to visit many of the area's centers of trade.
While he was there, he was able to learn both the mathematics of the scholars
and the calculating schemes in popular use, at the time.
In 1202 he published the first of his four books, Liber Abaci, it used the Hindu-Arabic
numbering system, introducing the Indian numbers 1 through 9 and zero to a
European audience. In his book you can tell that he was influenced by the Muslim
and Arab culture, because he wrote many things from right to left. In his book
he wrote the numerals in descending order and his fractions came before the
numeral like ½ 4 instead of 4 ½.
This sequence soon became known as the Fibonacci Sequence
Fibonacci's Rabbits
Originally this was a problem that he investigated (in the year 1202) to see
about how fast rabbits would breed in ideal circumstances. This is assumming
that none of the rabbits die, and that each pair of rabbits does not give birth
to more than one pair of rabbits each month. The picture below shows a pair of
rabbits that are born, and they don't mature until after the first month. Then
they give birth to a pair of rabbits, and they don't mature until after the
first month. It repeats like that forever. If you look at the numbers at the
right in the chart, it shows the number of rabbits that are alive at the time,
and those same numbers are also part of the Fibonacci Sequence. That is how he
discovered the sequence.
Below is one of the ways of calculating Fibonacci Numbers.
Fibonacci Numbers, represented here by Fi, can be defined as follows.
Let F0=0 and F1=1. For all other Fi, let Fn+1 = Fn-1 + Fn.
Effects
His introduction of the Arabian Numerals gave the Europeans an easier way to do
calculations. Since using Roman Numerals were harder to use because of so many
letters that represent numbers in different ways.
It also caused some of the people many years after he made the discovery to
create a society in his name. The Fibonacci Society was founded in 1962, and a
journal, The Fibonacci Quarterly, first appeared in 1963, and was dedicated to
unraveling its secrets. There were a lot of secrets to be found.
Many people have also tried to find sequences like Fibonacci's, but what they
found were forgeries. The sequence may start off like being the Fibonacci
Sequence, but then it starts giving other numbers that are not of the original
sequence.
Fibonacci was known for many things. He was best known for the Fibonacci Numbers,
which is a number sequence that he had discovered while solving a problem about
rabbits. There is a lot more that we will talk about him and his discoveries
which are now coming up.
From 529 until 1500 A.D. there were no big improvements in european mathematics.
Except for Fibonacci, who was a great 13th century mathematician. He was born in
Pisa, Italy, and was the son of a pisan merchant.
Fibonacci was best known as Leonardo of Pisa.
His father was also a customs officer for the North African city of Bugia. Since
Fibonacci was the son of a merchant, he was able go travel freely all over the
Byzantine Empire. Merchants at the time were immuned, so they were allowed to
move about freely. This allowed him to visit many of the area's centers of trade.
While he was there, he was able to learn both the mathematics of the scholars
and the calculating schemes in popular use, at the time.
In 1202 he published the first of his four books, Liber Abaci, it used the Hindu-Arabic
numbering system, introducing the Indian numbers 1 through 9 and zero to a
European audience. In his book you can tell that he was influenced by the Muslim
and Arab culture, because he wrote many things from right to left. In his book
he wrote the numerals in descending order and his fractions came before the
numeral like ½ 4 instead of 4 ½.
This sequence soon became known as the Fibonacci Sequence
Fibonacci's Rabbits
Originally this was a problem that he investigated (in the year 1202) to see
about how fast rabbits would breed in ideal circumstances. This is assumming
that none of the rabbits die, and that each pair of rabbits does not give birth
to more than one pair of rabbits each month. The picture below shows a pair of
rabbits that are born, and they don't mature until after the first month. Then
they give birth to a pair of rabbits, and they don't mature until after the
first month. It repeats like that forever. If you look at the numbers at the
right in the chart, it shows the number of rabbits that are alive at the time,
and those same numbers are also part of the Fibonacci Sequence. That is how he
discovered the sequence.
Below is one of the ways of calculating Fibonacci Numbers.
Fibonacci Numbers, represented here by Fi, can be defined as follows.
Let F0=0 and F1=1. For all other Fi, let Fn+1 = Fn-1 + Fn.
Effects
His introduction of the Arabian Numerals gave the Europeans an easier way to do
calculations. Since using Roman Numerals were harder to use because of so many
letters that represent numbers in different ways.
It also caused some of the people many years after he made the discovery to
create a society in his name. The Fibonacci Society was founded in 1962, and a
journal, The Fibonacci Quarterly, first appeared in 1963, and was dedicated to
unraveling its secrets. There were a lot of secrets to be found.
Many people have also tried to find sequences like Fibonacci's, but what they
found were forgeries. The sequence may start off like being the Fibonacci
Sequence, but then it starts giving other numbers that are not of the original
sequence.