The Fibonnaci number sequence was introduced by an Italian mathematician. The sequece is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 .... This sequence follows a pattern defined by the rules shown below. The Golden Ratio "ϕ" if the ratio between two adjacent values in the sequence.
| Fi | ϕ = Fi/Fi-1 | |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | na |
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | 1.5 |
| 4 | 5 | 1.7 |
| 5 | 8 | 1.6 |
| 6 | 13 | 1.65 |
The ratio of each number in the sequence of Fibonacci numbers approximates the golden ratio ϕ.
The Man
Leonardo Bonacci, later named Fibonnaci by Italian mathematician Guglielmo Libri, was the son of an Italian merchant and customs officer stationed in Northern Africa. Fibonacci traveled around the Mediterannean learning forms of arithmetic and found the Hindu-Arabic numeric system to have many advantages over other systems such as the Roman numeral system. It makes business calculations much easier. He published the book Liber Abaci ("The Book of Calculation") in 1202. He suggest the use of digits 0-9 which made modern calculations possible. This book was found to be useful for the banking industry.