When the universe aligns : Fibonacci Day

Vandya Bisaria

When the universe aligns : Fibonacci Day

Philosophers and scientists alike have speculated about the order of the universe. Many have contended that there is no such thing - nature breeds chaos, and everything happens by chance. At the same time, many argue that the universe is a delicate system based on cause and effect. It is ordered, but human beings have not been able to understand its working. The Fibonacci sequence was one such discovery that substantiated the claim that nothing is a coincidence.

Image Caption: Leonardo Bonacci Source: ThoughtCo

Further, he developed a pyramid, now known as Pascal’s triangle, which was called Meeru Prastara. This pyramid was analysed by him to discover Maathra Meru, or what is now called the Fibonacci sequence.

Meeru Prastara was a pyramid formed by the arrangement of squares. One square is placed on top, followed by two squares, with half of each extending on both sides. In the third line, three squares are placed with halves of the two squares at the extremes extending beyond the second line, and the same is followed for the rest of the lines. After making this arrangement, numbers are placed in the triangle.

Celebrated on November 23rd, Fibonacci day is named after the 13th-century mathematician Leonardo of Pisa or Leonardo Bonacci, also known as Fibonacci - referring to ‘son of Bonacci.’ In the Middle Ages, Leonardo, born to an Italian merchant, was traveling in North Africa when he came across the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. This system included zero and used up to 10 symbols, contrary to the disorderly Roman numeral system, which had to be repeatedly modified. It was in 1202 that he published his work Liber Abaci and introduced Europe to the Hindu-Arabic system as well as the Fibonacci sequence, which only became popular later on. In his book, he expressed his fascination with the method of the Indians called Modus Indorum.

The Fibonacci sequence, as explained by the mathematician, was an infinite series of numbers that started with 0 and 1 and then was formed so that each number was the sum of the previous two numbers. Thus, the sequence formed was:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and so on.

This sequence has become very popular in the 21st century. As mentioned in Dan Brown’s bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, the importance of this sequence is immense. But why so?

The Fibonacci sequence is also known as nature’s secret code. This sequence is found in many examples in nature - in the DNA of human beings, in hurricane patterns, in the arrangement of plant leaves in flowers, in the branching patterns of trees, and even in the spiral galaxies spread far and wide in the universe. When two consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are divided from each other, they yield the golden ratio or φ (phi), which is equal to 1.618. This number is found in the ratio of female bees to male bees in a hive, in the arrangement of piano keys, and in elephant tusks. In the world surrounding us, Fibonacci and the golden ratio are a mathematical certainty present in almost all things natural and man-made. They influence music, art, architecture, and design. In fact, Mozart and Beethoven, two of the most famous musicians of all time, used the Fibonacci sequence in their compositions. It is also used to lead technological advancements.

Maathra Meru or Fibonacci numbers emerge when the diagonal of the Meeru Prastara is seen.

While Western scholars state that the Fibonacci sequence is never mentioned in the Ancient Indian texts, there is extensive empirical evidence that the Indians discovered the Fibonacci sequence long before Leonardo Bonacci did so. It is ironic that the truth about what is probably the most mathematical and true fact in the universe can never be guaranteed.

Every year, November 23rd is celebrated as Fibonacci day to commemorate the discovery of this crucial number. And not without a reason. When written in numeral form - 11/23 represents the Fibonacci numbers - 1,1, 2, 3.

The celebration of this brilliant mathematical discovery is not just about science. It is a testament to the connection human beings have with everything that surrounds them and how the universe is bound together by its very basic foundations and proportions. Fibonacci sequence is an aspect of sacred geometry since it is present in nature and in various spiritual traditions across the world. It is actually used by many theists to prove the existence of God. If the world was not made by someone, then how can everything be arranged so spectacularly?

Many Indian scholars claim that it was not Fibonacci who discovered this sequence, but rather, it was found by the Ancient Indian mathematician and poet Acharya Pingala who lived in c. 2nd century BCE - 3rd century BCE. It seems fitting that a poet and mathematician found this sequence since mathematics and poetry are intrinsically related.

“What, after all, is mathematics if not the poetry of the mind, and what is poetry, if not the mathematics of the heart?” - David Eugene Smith

Pingala, it seems, found an actual connection between the two.

India’s Ancient Vedic systems, although dismissed by the West for a long time as philosophical, were some of the most rigorously developed and insightful commentaries on the systems of the natural world.

Pingala is most famously credited with the discovery of the binary system of 0 and 1, which is the basis of all technological inventions to date. He found the system while working on a meter or Chanda system for the Vedas written in Sanskrit. The Sanskrit language involves two basic sounds - the long swar and the short swar, which was the first instance of the binary system.