Leonardo Fibbonacis Famous Formulas :: essays research papers

Some people hate math and some love it. Other people devote their time to finding math patterns because they do not have a life. Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci, or Leonardo of Pisa, was one of those people. He was the "greatest European mathematician of the middle ages". Fibonacci was born 1175 AD in Pisa, Italy. His father was named Guilielmo, a member of the Bonacci Family and his mother Alessandra died when he was only nine years old. Fibonacci grew up with a North African Education because his father worked a trading post in that location. While there helping his father, he learned the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. Fibonacci traveled the Mediterranean world to study about Arab mathematicians of the time. Leonardo returned from his travels around 1200. In 1202, at age 32, he published what he had learned and introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals to Europe. His book was called Liber abaci. The book explained numeration with the digits 0?9 and place value. It also showed the importance of th e new numeral system. The book educated Europe and had an impact on European thought. However, the use of decimal numerals did not become widespread until much later. Liber Abaci also solved a problem involving the growth of a supposed population of rabbits. The solution was a series of numbers known as Fibonacci numbers. The number sequence was known to Indian mathematicians as early as the 6th century, but Fibonacci's Liber Abaci introduced it to the West. The Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers that begin with 0, 1 ... and then calculated each number from the sum of the previous two. The equation for this method is . Another theory he studied was a sequence that has a flower like pattern. Fibonacci's second work was the Practica geometriae and was composed in 1220-1221. The Practica geometriae draws heavily on the works of the ancient Greek masters i.e. Plato. Fibonacci made a dent in mathematics history.