go to previous page   go to home page   go to next page

Answer:

8 + 13 = 21


Fibonacci

Smokestack in Turku Finland
Smokestack in Turku, Finland
photo by Brian O'Connell

This problem was studied by Leonardo Fibonacci in the thirteenth century. The numbers of rabbits form the Fibonacci series. This series has important applications in several problems that have nothing to do with rabbits. Call the Nth number in the series fib(N):

Here is the rule for filling the chart, rewritten for fib(N):

fib( N ) = fib( N-1 ) + fib( N-2 )

Look at the chart to verify that the rule works.


QUESTION 16:

Is this rule a correct recursive definition?