Leonardo Pisano is better known by his nickname, Fibonacci.
Guilielmo and a member of the Bonacci family. Fibonacci himself sometimes used the name Bigollo, which may mean good-for-nothing or a traveler. Fibonacci was born in Italy but was educated in North Africa where his father held a diplomatic post. His father's job was to represent the merchants of the Republic of Pisa who were trading in Bugia, later called Bougie and now called Bejaia. Fibonacci was taught mathematics in Bugia and traveled widely with his father, and he recognized the advantages of the mathematical systems used in the countries they visited. .
Fibonacci ended his travels around the year 1200 and at that time he returned to Pisa. There he wrote a number of important texts which played an important role in reviving ancient mathematical skills and he also made significant contributions of his own. He was one of the first people to introduce the Hindu-Arabic number system into Europe - the positional system we use today. His book on how to do arithmetic in the decimal system, called Liber abbaci, was completed in 1202 and persuaded many European mathematicians of his day to use this "new" system. One might have thought that at a time when Europe was little interested in scholarship, Fibonacci would have been largely ignored. However, widespread interest in his work undoubtedly contributed strongly to his importance. .
In Fibonacci's book he introduces a problem for his readers to use to practice their.
arithmetic: a pair of rabbits are put in a field and, if rabbits take a month to .
become mature and then produce a new pair every month.
after that, how many pairs will there be in twelve months time? .
He assumes none of the rabbits escape or die. When the problem is solved, the answer involves this series of numbers: , 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, . in which each number is the sum of the previous two. These answers are defined by the following recursive equation: .
