Fibonaci: Details on Mathematician

Leonardo Bonacci, or more commonly known as Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician. He is widely considered one of the most talented western mathematician of the Middle Ages. He introduced Europe to the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, mainly through his book “Liber Abaci” which translates to book of calculation and also introduced Europe to the “Fibonacci numbers,” a sequence named after him which he figured out through the use of rabbits.

        Fibonacci was born in the year 1170 in Pisa, Italy. His father managed a trading post in Bugia. This port, found in Northern Africa was where young Fibonacci would accompany his dad. In Bugia is where Fibonacci would study and later learned the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. He realized that Hindu-Arabic numerals are much simpler and more efficient than with the Roman Numerals he had been previously using. After this, he went on a journey to Mediterranean countries to learn under the leading Arab Mathematician at the time. When he returned, he had recorded everything he learned and published it for all of Europe to see, thus bringing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to Europe.

        At a time when Europe wasn’t exactly interested in education so much you would expect Fibonacci to not get much attention but it was exactly the opposite. Many people were very interested in his work and that definitely helped him spread his findings much quicker and more efficiently. Fredrick II who was the Roman Emperor at the time heard of Fibonacci’s work from scholars who worked for him. He respected Fibonacci’s worked and invited him as his guest. He also presented Fibonacci with multiple problems and Fibonacci was able to answer all of them and in 1240 he was honored by the Republic of Pisa by granting him a salary. Fibonacci passed away in the year 1250 in the same place he was born.

Back to the Rabbit dilemma. If there are two rabbits of the opposite sex are put together in a field, supposing they never die and they always produce one male and one female how many pairs will there be in one year? Rabbits are able to mate after they are a month old which means they can give birth at the end of the second month of their life. The solution to this problem is a sequence of numbers which are now known as “Fibonacci numbers.” The sequence is “1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55...” and shows the number of existing pairs is the sum of the two previous numbers of pairs in the sequence. Fibonacci proposed and solved this problem in his book “Liber Abaci.”

The Fibonacci sequence is used every day in life and we don’t even know it. Fibonacci’s sequence applies everywhere in nature from “the leaf arrangement in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple.” This means that Fibonacci’s sequence applies to all living things from a single cell all the way to the human race. Plants do not understand the Fibonacci sequence, they just grow in the most efficient way possible. You can also see it in the shell of a snail. Honestly I have a hard time understanding the sequence without pictures.

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