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    The Fibonacci Sequence, Spirals and The Golden Mean

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    jai bachani
    The document discusses the Fibonacci sequence and its origins in a problem posed by Leonardo Fibonacci in his 1202 book Liber Abaci. The problem involved calculating the number of rabbit pairs born each month assuming each pair produces a new pair monthly. The solution to this problem produces the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is the sum of the previous two. This simple numeric pattern exhibits surprising appearances in nature and art related to concepts like the golden ratio and spirals.

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    The Fibonacci Sequence, Spirals and The Golden Mean

    Uploaded by

    jai bachani
    14 views3 pages
    The document discusses the Fibonacci sequence and its origins in a problem posed by Leonardo Fibonacci in his 1202 book Liber Abaci. The problem involved calculating the number of rabbit pairs born each month assuming each pair produces a new pair monthly. The solution to this problem produces the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is the sum of the previous two. This simple numeric pattern exhibits surprising appearances in nature and art related to concepts like the golden ratio and spirals.

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    THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE

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    The document discusses the Fibonacci sequence and its origins in a problem posed by Leonardo Fibonacci in his 1202 book Liber Abaci. The problem involved calculating the number of rabbit pairs born each month assuming each pair produces a new pair monthly. The solution to this problem produces the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is the sum of the previous two. This simple numeric pattern exhibits surprising appearances in nature and art related to concepts like the golden ratio and spirals.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    14 views3 pages

    The Fibonacci Sequence, Spirals and The Golden Mean

    Uploaded by

    jai bachani
    The document discusses the Fibonacci sequence and its origins in a problem posed by Leonardo Fibonacci in his 1202 book Liber Abaci. The problem involved calculating the number of rabbit pairs born each month assuming each pair produces a new pair monthly. The solution to this problem produces the Fibonacci sequence, where each number is the sum of the previous two. This simple numeric pattern exhibits surprising appearances in nature and art related to concepts like the golden ratio and spirals.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE, SPIRALS AND THE GOLDEN MEAN

    The Fibonacci sequence exhibits a certain numerical pattern which originated as the
    answer to an exercise in the first ever high school algebra text. This pattern turned out
    to have an interest and importance far beyond what its creator imagined. It can be
    used to model or describe an amazing variety of phenomena, in mathematics and
    science, art and nature. The mathematical ideas the Fibonacci sequence leads to, such
    as the golden ratio, spirals and self- similar curves, have long been appreciated for
    their charm and beauty, but no one can really explain why they are echoed so clearly
    in the world of art and nature.

    The story began in Pisa, Italy in the year 1202. Leonardo Pisano Bigollo was a young
    man in his twenties, a member of an important trading family of Pisa. In his travels
    throughout the Middle East, he was captivated by the mathematical ideas that had
    come west from India through the Arabic countries. When he returned to Pisa he
    published these ideas in a book on mathematics called Liber Abaci, which became a
    landmark in Europe. Leonardo, who has since come to be known as Fibonacci,
    became the most celebrated mathematician of the Middle Ages. His book was a
    discourse on mathematical methods in commerce, but is now remembered mainly for
    two contributions, one obviously important at the time and one seemingly
    insignificant.

    The important one: he brought to the attention of Europe the Hindu system for writing
    numbers. European tradesmen and scholars were still clinging to the use of the old
    Roman numerals; modern mathematics would have been impossible without this
    change to the Hindu system, which we call now Arabic notation, since it came west
    through Arabic lands.

    The other: hidden away in a list of brain-teasers , Fibonacci posed the following
    question:

    If a pair of rabbits is placed in an enclosed area, how many rabbits will be born there
    if we assume that every month a pair of rabbits produces another pair, and that
    rabbits begin to bear young two months after their birth?
    This apparently innocent little question has as an answer a certain sequence of
    numbers, known now as the Fibonacci sequence, which has turned out to be one of the
    most interesting ever written down. It has been rediscovered in an astonishing variety
    of forms, in branches of mathematics way beyond simple arithmetic. Its method of
    development has led to far-reaching applications in mathematics and computer
    science.
    But even more fascinating is the surprising appearance of Fibonacci numbers, and
    their relative ratios, in arenas far removed from the logical structure of mathematics:
    in Nature and in Art, in classical theories of beauty and proportion.

    Consider an elementary example of geometric growth - asexual reproduction, like that


    of the amoeba. Each organism splits into two after an interval of maturation time
    characteristic of the species. This interval varies randomly but within a certain range
    according to external conditions, like temperature, availability of nutrients and so on.
    We can imagine a simplified model where, under perfect conditions, all amoebae split
    after the same time period of growth.

    So, one amoebas becomes two, two become 4, then 8, 16, 32, and so on.

    We get a doubling sequence. Notice the recursive formula:

     An =2An

    This of course leads to exponential growth, one characteristic pattern of population


    growth.

    Now in the Fibonacci rabbit situation, there is a lag factor; each pair requires some
    time to mature. So we are assuming

     maturation time = 1 month


     gestation time = 1 month

    If you were to try this in your backyard, here's what would happen:
    Now let the computer draw a few more lines:

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