![]() ![]() The bigger the sequential numbers in the sequence, the closer their ratio is to phi: 1.6180339887498948420. ![]() If you divide one of its numbers by the one before it you get an increasingly good approximation of the golden ratio. In mathematics it is now known by the Greek letter Φ (phi, mostly pronounced "fi" today, or "fee" in Greek).Īt first the Fibonacci sequence was the practical answer to an apparently pressing question of the time: how many pairs of rabbits result from a single pair of breeding rabbits over a particular period of time?įibonacci's sequence has a few other surprises. While his achievements and influence were considerable - including an early adoption of the decimal system in Europe - Fibonacci is best known today for a peculiar sequence of numbers and its connection to an "irrational number" first defined by the ancient Greeks.Ī few centuries after Fibonacci, this number was called the divine proportion, and then in the 1800s, the golden ratio. Leonardo of Pisa (1170-1240), nicknamed Fibonacci, was perhaps the greatest mathematician in Europe during the Middle Ages. ![]() They show up not only in plants themselves, but also in the way we design gardens. What does interest me is the pervasiveness of these numbers in nature and whether that is anything more than a happy happenstance. I wasn't attracted to Dan Brown's 2003 bestseller The Da Vinci Code, but I gather that to decode "the code" you need a passing knowledge of the golden ratio and its mathematical mate the Fibonacci sequence. ![]()
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