College of the Redwoods

Fun With Fibonacci

Angie Tapia, Cameron Trujillo
December 7, 2012
1 Introduction
1.1 In the Beginning
...there was Pythagoras. This nearly mythical mathematician put geometry on the map
and supposedly coined the term "Mathematics" (or "that which is learned"). He was a
holy man, a prophet, and is purported to have been a seer, but he taught his fervent
disciples that all is number. The Pythagoreans are credited with the discovery of the
so-called "Golden Ratio". Figure 1.1
Figure 1.1: The Frequently Manifested "Golden Ratio"
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1.2 And After That...
...there was Leonardo of Pisa. He was a major dude, and a son of Italy proper. Leonardos
main mission in life was to spread the good word of the Hindu-Arabic number system to
the western world at large. His book, the Liber abaci (or "book of abacus"), really had
nothing to do with the abacus at all, but was among the rst of western books about
numbers as we know them. Within its hallowed pages can be found the inklings of
greatness in the form of a lagamorphic confundity. Leonardo, also known as Fibonacci,
posed the question:
How many pairs of rabbits will be produced in a year, beginning with
a single pair, if in every month each pair bears a new pair which becomes
productive from the second month on?
Fibonaccis quandry led mathematicians for generations to come on a wild ride through
the annals of numerical history. The so called "Fibonacci Sequence" was born. A closer
look at this ever-expanding rabbit family reveals the series
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 13, 21, 34, ..., F
n
With F
n
= F
n1
+F
n2
Or, in other words, a sequence of numbers wherein each entry is the sum of the two
preceeding entries.
1.3 The End of the Beginning
As it turns out, a rather simple application of the tenets of the most holy of mathemat-
ics, linear algebra, reveals an interesting relationship between the Golden Ratio of the
Pythagoreans and Fibonaccis copiously copulating rabbits.
2 What Well Need To Do...
To fully comprehend how the Fibonacci Sequence applies in Linear Algebra, a few terms
must rst be dened and explained.
Eigenvector: An eigenvector of an n x n matrix A is a nonzero vector x such that
Ax=x for some scalar .
Eigenvalue: A scalar is called an eigenvalue of A if there is a nontrivial solution x
of Ax=x; such an x is called an eigenvector corresponding to .
Eigenspace(of A corresponding to ): The set of all solutions of Ax=x, where
is an eigenvalue of A. Consists of the zero vector and all eigenvectors corresponding to
.
2
Theorem 1: The eigenvalues of a triangular matrix are the entries on its main di-
agonal.
Theorem 2: If v
1
,...,v
r
are eigenvectors that correspond to distinct eigenvalues
1
,...,
r
of an n x n matrix A, then the set {v
1
,...,v
r
} is linearly independent.
detA=

1
r
, product of pivots in U
0, when A is not invertible
Characteristic Equation: The scalar equation det(A - I)=0 is the characteristic
equation of A.
The scalar is an eigenvalue of an n x n matrix A if and only if satises the charac-
teristic equation det(A - I)=0 .
Invertible Matrix: A square matrix that possesses an inverse.
The Invertible Matrix Theorem (continued)
Let A be an n x n matrix. Then A is invertible if and only if:
s. The number ) is not an eigenalue of A
t. The determinant of A is not zero.
The Diagonalization Theorem :
An n x n matrix A is diagonizable if and only if A has n linearly independent eigenvec-
tors.
In fact, A=PDP
1
, with D a diagonal matrix, if and only if the columns of P are n
linearly independent eigenvectors of A. In this case, the diagonal entries of D are eigen-
values of A that correspond, respectively, to the eigenvectors in P.
Eigenvector Basis: A is diagonizable if and only if there are enough eigenvectors
to form a basis of R
n
. Such a basis is called an eigenvector basis of R
n
.
Theorem 6: An n x n matrix with n distinct eigenvalues is diagonizable.
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3 Maths, baby. Maths...
As stated prviously, the nth entry in the bonacci sequence is dened by
F
n
= F
n1
+F
n2
Pretty easy, right? Well not so fast, cowboy. This denition is all ne and well, so long
as we have F
n1
and F
n2
dened.To get where were going, we need to view the system
as a linear transformation. Lets begin by looking at the Fibonacci Sequence as a System
of linear equations
F
n
= F
n1
+F
n2
F
n1
= F
n1
+ 0

F
n
F
n1

1 1
1 0

F
n1
F
n2

(3.1)
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