Celebrate Fibonacci Day on November 23d!

Today is November 23rd – Happy Fibonacci Day! 🌻🐚 Take a look at our video and learn how the Fibonacci sequence has deep roots in our world! #STEMinASL

Also, enjoy the Fibonacci story in ASL by Rocky Mountain Deaf School!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1-PaEUqPn4

Transcript:

Today is November 23rd — Fibonacci Day! What’s that? Well, before I tell you this… Let’s take a look at nature —- have you ever noticed that nature has patterns?

Let’s take flowers for example. Lilies have 3 petals, buttercups have 5 of them, chicories have 21 of them, daisies have often 34 or 55 petals. Furthermore, when one observes the heads of sunflowers, one notices two series of curves — one winding in one direction and one in another. If you count the clockwise and counterclockwise spirals that reach the outer edge, you’ll usually find a pair of numbers from the sequence: 34 and 55, or 55 and 89, or—with very large sunflowers—89 and 144. The same for pinecones: they have either a pair of spirals: 5 and 8, or 8 and 13. Pineapples have a certain number of diagonals: 8 in one direction and 13 in the other.

Or what about human fingers? The ratio of each section of your index finger follows a sequence of 2, 3, 5, and 8. Or tree branches? One tree trunk grows until it produces a branch, resulting in two growth points. The main trunk then produces another branch, resulting in three growth points. Then the trunk and the first branch produce two more growth points, bringing the total to five. Are these numbers the product of chance? No! They all belong to the Fibonacci sequence.
Fibonacci sequence is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and so forth. Each number in the sequence is the sum of the two numbers that precede it. Who made this sequence well-known? Leonardo Fibonacci. He mentioned this sequence in his book on mathematics, Liber Abaci, which was published in 1202. Here’s an interesting fact… His name, Fibonacci, was actually a nickname given to him in the 19th century by a historian. The Italian mathematician was originally known as Leonardo of Pisa. The nickname is short for “filius Bonacci”, roughly meaning son of the Bonacci (his father’s last name).

When we make squares with the Fibonacci sequence, we get a nice spiral. To see this, let’s start with two small squares of size 1 next to each other. On top of both of these, draw a square of size 2 (=1+1). Now, draw a new size 3 – touching size 1 and size 2. Then, draw size 5 touching both the 2-square and the 3-square. Continue adding squares around the picture, each new square having a side which is as long as the sum of the latest two square’s sides. These numbers create a spiral that links the corners of neighboring squares. The spiral is called the golden spiral. This is why we see spirals in sunflowers, pinecones, etc! We also see the golden spiral in galaxies, hurricanes, and shells.

Fibonacci sequence does not only have applications in nature, art and architecture but in business and computer science too. The business world uses a technique called the Fibonacci Retracement to estimate the action that the price of a particular stock will take, based on certain ratios calculated from the Fibonacci numbers. Lines will be set across the 0, 23.6, 38.2, 50, 61.8, and 100 percentiles of the chosen high stock price and low stock price. A trader would then use these estimates to buy stock when the value decreases to one of these percentages, and sell stock as it peaks at another of the percentages. Computer science also use the Fibonacci sequence in their algorithm for calculations, data processing, and encryption.

Wow, we see that math has deep roots in our world. Now, you know why today, November 23, is the Fibonacci Day, as it has the digits “1, 1, 2, 3” which is part of the sequence! Can you think of other Fibonacci examples? Happy Fibonacci Day!