Charting  |  APR 2009

Fibonacci Tools by Alexander Sabodin

Fibonacci Tools by Alexander Sabondin Here’s a look at the numbers behind the Fibonacci sequence and how it can be applied to your charts. The sequence of the Fibonacci numbers is considered to have been discovered by Leo-nardo of Pisa, better known as “Fibonacci,” a 13th-century Italian mathematician. (“Fibonacci” is an abbreviation of filius Bonacci; filius is Latin for “son of.”) In the early 1200s, after traveling through parts of the Middle East and studying with Arab mathematicians, Fibonacci published his book Liber Abaci, or “Book of Calculation,” which introduced to the West something that is one of the greatest discoveries of all time: the decimal numeration system, including the position of zero as the first number in the number sequence. This system, known as the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, includes zero, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 and is commonly used today instead of Roman numerals. Fibonacci became one of the best-known mathematicians of his time. He wrote three essential, ground-breaking books on mathematics: Liber Abaci, published in 1202 and updated in 1228; Practica Geometriae (“Practical Geometry,” a compendium on geometry and trigonometry), published in 1220; and Liber Quadratorum (“The Book of Squares”). THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE In Liber Abaci, Leonardo presented the following task: “How many couples of rabbits, placed into a rabbit corral, can be produced for a year by a rabbit couple, if each couple produces one more couple every month since the second month?” This resulted in the Fibonacci sequence of numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…

by Alexander Sabodin