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Fibonacci sequence
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===India=== {{see also|Golden ratio#History}} [[File:Fibonacci Sanskrit prosody.svg|thumb|Thirteen ({{math|''F''<sub>7</sub>}}) ways of arranging long and short syllables in a cadence of length six. Eight ({{math|''F''<sub>6</sub>}}) end with a short syllable and five ({{math|''F''<sub>5</sub>}}) end with a long syllable.]] The Fibonacci sequence appears in [[Indian mathematics]], in connection with [[Sanskrit prosody]].<ref name="HistoriaMathematica">{{Citation|first=Parmanand|last=Singh|title= The So-called Fibonacci numbers in ancient and medieval India|journal=Historia Mathematica|volume=12|issue=3|pages=229–244|year=1985|doi = 10.1016/0315-0860(85)90021-7|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="knuth-v1">{{Citation|title=The Art of Computer Programming|volume=1|first=Donald|last=Knuth| author-link =Donald Knuth |publisher=Addison Wesley|year=1968|isbn=978-81-7758-754-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MooMkK6ERuYC&pg=PA100|page=100|quote=Before Fibonacci wrote his work, the sequence Fn had already been discussed by Indian scholars, who had long been interested in rhythmic patterns ... both Gopala (before 1135 AD) and Hemachandra (c. 1150) mentioned the numbers 1,2,3,5,8,13,21 explicitly [see P. Singh Historia Math 12 (1985) 229–44]" p. 100 (3d ed) ...}}</ref>{{sfn|Livio|2003|p=197}} In the Sanskrit poetic tradition, there was interest in enumerating all patterns of long (L) syllables of 2 units duration, juxtaposed with short (S) syllables of 1 unit duration. Counting the different patterns of successive L and S with a given total duration results in the Fibonacci numbers: the number of patterns of duration {{mvar|m}} units is {{math|''F''<sub>''m''+1</sub>}}.<ref name="Donald Knuth 2006 50">{{Citation|title = The Art of Computer Programming | volume = 4. Generating All Trees – History of Combinatorial Generation | first = Donald | last = Knuth | author-link = Donald Knuth |publisher= Addison–Wesley |year= 2006 | isbn= 978-0-321-33570-8 | page = 50 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=56LNfE2QGtYC&q=rhythms&pg=PA50 | quote = it was natural to consider the set of all sequences of [L] and [S] that have exactly m beats. ... there are exactly Fm+1 of them. For example the 21 sequences when {{math|1=''m'' = 7}} are: [gives list]. In this way Indian prosodists were led to discover the Fibonacci sequence, as we have observed in Section 1.2.8 (from v.1)}}</ref> Knowledge of the Fibonacci sequence was expressed as early as [[Pingala]] ({{circa}} 450 BC–200 BC). Singh cites Pingala's cryptic formula ''misrau cha'' ("the two are mixed") and scholars who interpret it in context as saying that the number of patterns for {{mvar|m}} beats ({{math|''F''<sub>''m''+1</sub>}}) is obtained by adding one [S] to the {{math|''F''<sub>''m''</sub>}} cases and one [L] to the {{math|''F''<sub>''m''−1</sub>}} cases.<ref>{{Citation | last = Agrawala | first = VS | year = 1969 | title = ''Pāṇinikālīna Bhāratavarṣa'' (Hn.). Varanasi-I: TheChowkhamba Vidyabhawan | quote = SadgurushiShya writes that Pingala was a younger brother of Pāṇini [Agrawala 1969, lb]. There is an alternative opinion that he was a maternal uncle of Pāṇini [Vinayasagar 1965, Preface, 121]. ... Agrawala [1969, 463–76], after a careful investigation, in which he considered the views of earlier scholars, has concluded that Pāṇini lived between 480 and 410 BC}}</ref> [[Bharata Muni]] also expresses knowledge of the sequence in the ''[[Natya Shastra]]'' (c. 100 BC–c. 350 AD).<ref name="HistoriaMathematica"/><ref name=GlobalScience>{{Citation|title=Toward a Global Science|first=Susantha|last=Goonatilake|author-link=Susantha Goonatilake|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1998|page=126|isbn=978-0-253-33388-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SI5ip95BbgEC&pg=PA126}}</ref> However, the clearest exposition of the sequence arises in the work of [[Virahanka]] (c. 700 AD), whose own work is lost, but is available in a quotation by Gopala (c. 1135):{{sfn|Livio|2003|p=197}} <blockquote>Variations of two earlier meters [is the variation] ... For example, for [a meter of length] four, variations of meters of two [and] three being mixed, five happens. [works out examples 8, 13, 21] ... In this way, the process should be followed in all ''mātrā-vṛttas'' [prosodic combinations].{{efn|"For four, variations of meters of two [and] three being mixed, five happens. For five, variations of two earlier—three [and] four, being mixed, eight is obtained. In this way, for six, [variations] of four [and] of five being mixed, thirteen happens. And like that, variations of two earlier meters being mixed, seven [[Mora (linguistics)|morae]] [is] twenty-one. In this way, the process should be followed in all mātrā-vṛttas" <ref>{{Citation|last=Velankar|first=HD|year=1962|title='Vṛttajātisamuccaya' of kavi Virahanka|publisher=Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute|location=Jodhpur|page=101}}</ref>}}</blockquote> [[Hemachandra]] (c. 1150) is credited with knowledge of the sequence as well,<ref name=GlobalScience/> writing that "the sum of the last and the one before the last is the number ... of the next mātrā-vṛtta."{{sfn|Livio|2003|p=197–198}}<ref>{{citation|last1=Shah|first1=Jayant|year=1991|title=A History of Piṅgala's Combinatorics|url=https://web.northeastern.edu/shah/papers/Pingala.pdf|publisher=[[Northeastern University]]|page=41|access-date=4 January 2019}}</ref>
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