Publication
Title
Phi-bonacci in Ancient Greece
Author
Abstract
Fibonacci numbers are a very popular subject in mathematics, culture and science. A major open question is why the ancient Greeks overlooked this series, while they were very familiar with the golden mean and division in extreme and mean ratio. Furthermore, they could compute the square root of five to a high degree of precision using Theon 's ladder. This fact is based on tables built with side and diagonal numbers, and it is a simple and incredibly efficient method to compute roots of integers, though it is little known even now among most of the experts. The biologist D 'Arcy Wentworth Thompson showed that the same method could be used to generate the Fibonacci series using a simple shift in the computation of the tables. He argues, quite convincingly, that the ancient Greeks could not have overlooked this. Actually, the same method can be used to generate all possible regular phyllotaxis patterns.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Symmetry : culture and science. - Budapest, 1990, currens
Publication
Budapest : International Symmetry Foundation , 2021
ISSN
0865-4824
DOI
10.26830/SYMMETRY_2021_1_025
Volume/pages
32 :1 (2021) , p. 25-40
ISI
000643822700002
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 31.05.2021
Last edited 30.10.2024
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