The Fibonacci Sequence is named for Fibonacci (whose proper name was Leonardo di Pisa) who introduced the sequence to western mathematics in 1202 with his book, Liber Abaci, though Indian mathematicians had acknowledged the sequence much earlier, possibly as early as 200bc. For comparison, the concept of Pi (which is a constant, not a sequence) was first used by the ancient Egyptians around 2500bc. It should be noted that the Liber Abaci (commonly translated as “Book of Calculation”) was not “about” the Sequence, per se, as it only appears in the 3rd chapter (of 7 total), where it is described by the hypothetical population expansion of rabbits.
The sequence occurs frequently in nature including:
- Petal arrangements on flowers
- Skin and shell patterns on fruits
- The Rabbit’s Reproduction stuff
Mathematically speaking, the Fibonacci sequence is described as follows:
F_n = F_{n-1} + F_{n-2} with seed values F_0 = 0 and F_1 = 1.
For the rest of us, this basically means that you start with a 0 and a 1 and each number after that is the sum of the two previous numbers.
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