Actually, the big thing is not as much a "Fibonnacci series" as
Fibonacci's number (correct spelling).

Fibonacci's number:
Start with ANY two numbers (typically 1 and 1, not 0 and 1, according to
Webster). The next number in the series is the sum of the two last
numbers:
N(1) = 1
N(2) = 1
N(3) = N(1) + N(2) = 2
N(4) = N(2) + N(3) = 3
...
N(m) = N(m-2) + N(m-1)
...

The BIG thing:
The interesting particularity of this series is that the ratio of N(m-1)
/ N(m) converges very fast towards the number 0.618..., regardless of
the two original numbers. Calculating Fibonacci's number (number towards
which the ratio converges) to a desired precision is often the first
computer program people write.

Check-out the following two series, using different starting points.
They both converge extremely fast.

Index	Number	Ratio		Index	Number	Ratio
1	1			1	13	
2	1	1.00000		2	15	0.86667
3	2	0.50000		3	28	0.53571
4	3	0.66667		4	43	0.65116
5	5	0.60000		5	71	0.60563
6	8	0.62500		6	114	0.62281
7	13	0.61538		7	185	0.61622
8	21	0.61905		8	299	0.61873
9	34	0.61765		9	484	0.61777
10	55	0.61818		10	783	0.61814

Even more interesting, 0.618 or so is an appealing number to humans.
Notice how everything you look at is rectangular, not square. Of course,
the length of the short side divided by the length of the long side on
most rectangles does not always give 0.618, but the closer it is, the
most appealing the shape is (so my High School math teacher says).

Hope this answers your questions,
PierreC
>----------
>From: 	A.Appleyard[SMTP:A.APPLEYARD@fs*.mt*.um*.ac*.uk*]
>Sent: 	Tuesday, September 24, 1996 2:29 AM
>To: 	Techdiver@terra.net
>Subject: 	Fibonacci series
>
>  Scott Leimroth <anscott@ns*.co*.au*> wrote (Subject: Deco):-
>> Fibonnacci sequence.????? Can somebody please explain what this is to this
>> poor fool. Thanks in advance, Scott
>
>I think it is the series of integers 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 etc, where each
>element is the sum of the two previous elements.
>--
>Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@terra.net'.
>Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@terra.net'.
>

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