Does this sequence look familiar? If you thought for one second that this was the Fibonacci sequence then you’re right! The Fibonacci sequence was one of the few things created by Leonardo Passion, considered the greatest European mathematician in the middle ages, that was a significant contribution to math. In order to gain a better understanding of the life of Leonardo Passion, better known as Fibonacci, and his contributions to the mathematical society let us first take a look at the brief history of what is known of Leonardo from birth to death.
Leonardo Passion was born in Pisa, Italy roughly around 1175 as the son of Gullied Fibonacci. Gullied worked as a secretary and at a diplomatic post in numerous factories located on the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean for merchants of Pisa and as a result Leonardo was educated in the Algerian city of Baja (then known as Boogie and Buggy) instead of in Italy. It was there where he was taught mathematics. Aside from this not much is known about his childhood. He was later able to tour the Mediterranean area with his father up until 1200 when he decided to stop.
During the time spent in his travels, Leonardo learned about the advantages of the mathematical systems of each of the countries that he visited with his father. When Leonardo stopped touring the Mediterranean with his father in 1200 it was the beginning of a new stage of life for him. Thus the end of an obscure age of the life of Passion and the birth of an age that he would be very well known for due to all of his important discoveries. Before we go on to the next important stage of life of Fibonacci which resulted in his extraordinary mathematical contribution to society there are some interesting hangs that can be learned about him.
The name Fibonacci was not Just some random nickname given to Passion, in fact it does hold significant value, the nickname Fibonacci came from the shortened term of fulfils Fibonacci (Latin for son of Fibonacci which was his father’s surname) which is similar to English last names such as Robin- son and John-son. So the term If-Fibonacci was coined for Passion and he is known quite commonly only by this name. Fibonacci brought the Arabic-Hindi numerals and changed the standard from Roman numerals to Arabic-Hindi numerals which are our current number writing system.
Fibonacci also wrote quite a number of books, volumes, articles, etc. Many of which we still have today. This includes manuscripts such as Libber Abaci, The Book of Squares, A letter to Master Theodore, Floss, Scripts did Leonardo Passion, Practical Geometric, and Book X. Many of these books were written during the sass, his second stage of life. After returning from traveling with his father throughout the Mediterranean region, Fibonacci began to write about his ideas and theories. His work would have not been very well known had it not been for the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
Frederick II heard about Fibonacci through his court who had tested Fibonacci with a series of complex mathematical problems, many of which Fibonacci was able to solve. These were later referenced in his book Libber Abaci as this excerpt from the book shows: “A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair which from the second month on becomes productive? ” The resulting sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55… In which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers, is now called the Fibonacci sequence.
This sequence has proved extremely fruitful and appears in many different areas of mathematics and science. This mathematical contribution of his was the foundation of many things to come such as the discovery of the Fibonacci spiral which is seen even in nature as in the arrangement of sunflower seeds and the formation of hurricanes. Another discovery is the golden section which is based off of the Fibonacci sequence and the contributions of Fibonacci to the mathematical world. Fibonacci ideas and theories are still used today in phi and geometry and even in modern market trading, looking for the golden sections and Fibonacci ratios.
Oddly enough, there were not many people who discredited the works of Fibonacci and made him prove his theories. It can be duly noted however that Fibonacci answered and discovered his theories based on questions given to him by the court of Frederick II. Fibonacci other significant contributions was the publicizing of the Arabic-Hindi 9 number numeric system which at the time was missing the number O. This soon became the standard numeric system for the entire world and included the O. Another contribution of Fibonacci was the square root notation which he created.
Without the contributions of Fibonacci there would be many aspects of math that would not be present which is why Fibonacci is such an important part of the mathematical society. Fibonacci life after all his discovery was masked with mystery and not much is known over it. It is known that he died around 1740 and that was the end of the life of Leonardo Fibonacci Passion the legendary mathematician. His entire life shrouded in mystery with only light shed upon his accomplishments. This wonderful mathematician has changed the world of mathematics for the better and opened up new possibilities for future generations.
