Fibonacci and His Sequence

Here you go Dina, hope you like the explanation.

First some info on Fibonacci

Fibonacci was born in Italy but was educated in North Africa where his father, Guilielmo, 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. Bejaia is a Mediterranean port in northeastern Algeria. It was in Bejaia where the famous mathemetician got his education.

Second where his sequence comes from

The original problem that Fibonacci investigated was about how fast rabbits could breed in ideal circumstances. The problem set was:

Suppose a newly-born pair of rabbits, one male, one female, are put in a field. Rabbits are able to mate at the age of one month so that at the end of its second month a female can produce another pair of rabbits. Suppose that the rabbits never die and that the female always produces one new pair (one male, one female) every month from the second month on. How many pairs of rabbits are there after one year?

The Solution:
-At the end of the first month, the pair of rabbits mate, but there is still only one pair.
-At the end of the second month the female produces another pair so that there are now two pairs.
-At the end of the third month the original female produces another pair so that there are now three pairs of rabbits in the field.
-At the end of the forth month, the original female produces yet another pair and the female produced two months ago produces her first pair so that there are now five pairs of rabbits in the field.
- By one year there will be 233 pairs

Hence the sequence 1,1,2,3,5…(the next number is the sum of the previous two)

It is important to note that the population of rabbits is just one aspect of nature and life that these numbers relate to. There are many, many others including spider webs and even dripping taps and suspension bridges.

Sources: many, I originally read this in a book on the number Zero written by Charles Seif