- Italian mathematician.
He published Liber abaci/The Book of the Calculator in Pisa 1202, which
was instrumental in the introduction of Arabic notation into Europe.
From 1960, interest increased in Fibonacci numbers, in their simplest
form a sequence in which each number is the sum of its two predecessors
(1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ...). They have unusual characteristics with
possible applications in botany, psychology, and astronomy (for example,
a more exact correspondence than is given by Bode's law to the distances
between the planets and the Sun).
In 1220, Fibonacci published Practica geometriae, in which he used algebraic
methods to solve many arithmetical and geometrical problems.
Fibonacci was born in Pisa but learned mathematics in Algeria.
He travelled extensively in the Mediterranean region. Returning to Pisa
in about 1200, he began his mathematical writings. In 1225 he won a
mathematical tournament in the presence of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick
II at the court of Pisa. A marble tablet dated 1240 appears to refer
to Fibonacci as being awarded an annual pension for his accountancy
services to the state.
Liber abaci was a thorough treatise on algebraic methods and problems
in which he strongly advocated the introduction of the Indo-Arabic numeral
system, comprising the figures 1 to 9, and the innovation of the 'zephirum'
- the figure 0 (zero). Dealing with operations in whole numbers systematically,
he also proposed the idea of a bar (solidus) for fractions.
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