Fibonacci Sequence

Fibonacci Sequence

Fibonacci, also known as the Leonardo of Pisa, born in the early 1770’s AD in Pisa, Italy, has had a huge impact on today’s math, and is used in everyday jobs all over the world. After living with his dad, a North African educator, he discovered these ways of math by traveling along the Mediterranean Coast learning their ways of math. With the inspiration from the “Hindu-Arabic” numerical system, Fibonacci created the 0-9 number system we still use to this day.

One of his most important and interesting discoveries is probably what is known as the Fibonacci sequence. It goes like this: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and so on. He discovered this sequence through an experiment on an over population and breeding of rabbits. He then realized that if you add the last two numbers together you get the next one.

The Fibonacci sequence can be found almost anywhere including: architecture, economics, music, aesthetics, and most famously known, nature. For example the way seeds are arranged on a sunflower or pinecone, uses the Fibonacci sequence to prevent over crowding. It can also be seen in spiral galaxies, shells, the way water falls on a spider web, and even in your own body. Did you know that if you go from the bone in the tip of your finger to it’s middle it should be two fingernails long, followed by the base at about 5 fingernails, and the final bone goes all the way to about the middle of your palm which is the length of about 8 fingernails? There are other example of this in your body to such as a DNA strand is 34 by 21 angstroms. Mozart uses it in his world-known sonatas by how many measures he puts in each section of his music. Or on a piano, if you look at the scale, there are 13 keys, 8 are white, and 5 black, which are split into groups of 2 and 3. When it comes to architecture, it’s been used as early as 2,560 BC on the Great Giza Pyramids. Leonardo DaVinci always tried to use this sequence throughout his artwork to, due to its aesthetic appeal. As for economics, some people believe that the stock market follows a sequence like Fibonacci’s but this is still being strongly debated.

Yet even today, Fibonacci is known as the greatest European mathematician of the middle ages and will never be forgotten for his math contributions. I believe we are just discovering how many uses there really are for the Fibonacci Sequence, and I’m excited to see how they will evolve and become an even bigger part of our daily lives.