## Fibonacci multiples, solution 1

In a previous post, I challenged you to prove

If $m$ evenly divides $n$, then $F_m$ evenly divides $F_n$,

where $F_n$ denotes the $n$th Fibonacci number ($F_0 = 0; F_1 = 1; F_{n+2} = F_{n+1} + F_n$).

Here’s one fairly elementary proof (though it certainly has a few twists!). Pick some arbitrary $m \geq 1$ and consider listing not just the Fibonacci numbers themselves, but their remainders when divided by $F_m$. For example, let’s choose $m = 4$, so we want to list the remainders of the Fibonacci numbers when divided by $F_4 = 3$.

Here are the first 17 Fibonacci numbers:

$0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610,987$

And here are their remainders when divided by $F_4 = 3$, represented graphically (red = 1, orange = 2, blank gap = 0):

Remainders of the first 17 Fibonacci numbers mod 3

And indeed, as we would expect if the theorem is true, every fourth remainder is zero: $F_{4k}$ is evenly divisible by $F_4$. But there seems to be a bit more than that going on—the pattern of remainders we got is definitely not random! Let’s try $F_5 = 5$. Here are the remainders when the first 21 Fibonacci numbers are divided by 5:

The first 21 Fibonacci numbers mod 5

Hmm. Every fifth remainder is zero, as we expected… but the other remainders don’t seem to follow a nice pattern this time.

…or do they? Actually, if you stare at it long enough you’ll probably find some patterns there! Not to mention that I haven’t really shown you enough of the sequence. Here are the remainders of the first 41 Fibonacci numbers when divided by 5:

First 41 Fibonacci numbers mod 5

Aha! So it does repeat after all. We just hadn’t looked far enough.

And just for fun, let’s include some Fibonacci numbers mod $F_6 = 8$. These repeat much more quickly than for $F_5$.

Fibonacci numbers mod 8

OK, now that we’ve tried some specific values of $m$, let’s think about this more generally. When listing the remainders of the Fibonacci numbers divided by $F_m$, the initial part of the list will look like

$F_0, F_1, F_2, \dots, F_{m-1}, 0$

because all the Fibonacci numbers before $F_m$ are of course less than $F_m$, so when we divide them by $F_m$ they are simply their own remainder. Next, of course, $F_m$ leaves a remainder of zero when divided by itself. Then what?

Well, $F_{m+1} = F_m + F_{m-1}$ by definition, so its remainder mod $F_m$ is $F_{m-1}$. OK, so far we have

$F_0, F_1, F_2, \dots, F_{m-1}, 0, F_{m-1}$

In fact, the rule for finding the next remainder in the sequence will be the same as the rule defining the Fibonacci numbers, except that we do everything mod $F_m$. So the next element in the sequence is $0 + F_{m-1} = F_{m-1}$ again:

$F_0, F_1, F_2, \dots, F_{m-1}, 0, F_{m-1}, F_{m-1}$

…and now, it seems, we are stuck! What do we get when we add $F_{m-1} + F_{m-1}$? Who knows?

Here is where I will do something sneaky. I am going to replace the second copy of $F_{m-1}$ by $-F_{m-2}$, like this:

$F_0, F_1, F_2, \dots, F_{m-1}, 0, F_{m-1}, -F_{m-2}$

Huh!? What does that even mean? Surely we can never actually get a negative number as a remainder when dividing by $F_m$. Well, that’s true, but from now on, instead of strictly writing the remainder when $F_k$ is divided by $F_m$, I’ll just write something which is equivalent to $F_k$ modulo $F_m$. This is all that really matters, since I just want to see which positions are equivalent to zero modulo $F_m$.

So, the claim is that $F_{m-1} \equiv -F_{m-2} \pmod{F_m}$. Why is that? Well, $F_{m-1} + F_{m - 2} = F_m \equiv 0 \pmod{F_m}$, and then we can just subtract $F_{m-2}$ from both sides.

Then what? $F_{m-1} - F_{m-2} = F_{m-3}$; then $-F_{m-2} + F_{m-3} = -(F_{m-2} - F_{m-3}) = -F_{m-4}$, and so on: we get the Fibonacci numbers in reverse, with alternating signs!

$F_0, F_1, F_2, \dots, F_{m-1}, 0, F_{m-1}, -F_{m-2}, F_{m-3}, -F_{m-4}, \dots$

For example, here are the first few Fibonacci numbers mod 8 again, but according to the above pattern, with negative numbers indicated by downwards pointing bars (and the original bars shown mostly transparent, for comparison):

See how the colors of the bars repeat now, but running forwards then backwards?

If $m$ is even, then $F_1$ will be positive (as you can see in the example above); that is, we get

$F_0, F_1, F_2, \dots, F_{m-1}, 0, F_{m-1}, -F_{m-2}, \dots, -F_2, F_1, 0, \dots$

After this point we get $F_1 + 0 = F_1, 0 + F_1 = F_2$, and so on, and the whole pattern repeats again, as we’ve seen.

What if $m$ is odd? Then $F_1$ will be negative, so we have to go through one more cycle with everything negated:

$F_0, \dots, F_{m-1}, 0, F_{m-1}, -F_{m-2}, \dots, -F_1, 0, -F_1, -F_2, \dots, -F_{m-1}, 0, -F_{m-1}, F_{m-2}, \dots, F_1, 0$

This explains why we had to look at a longer portion of the remainders mod 5 before they repeated. Here’s mod 5 again, with negatives shown graphically:

The colors of the bars still repeat: forwards, then backwards but alternating up and down, then forwards but all upside down, then backwards and alternating (but the other way). But at the end we’re back to $F_1$, so the whole thing will repeat again.

In any case, whether $m$ is odd or even, these patterns of remainders will keep repeating forever, with a $0$ always occurring every $m$ positions—that is, at $F_m, F_{2m}, F_{3m}, \dots$, so $F_{km}$ will always be divisible by $F_m$!

There are other ways to prove this as well; perhaps I’ll explain some of them in a future post. It turns out that the converse is also true: if $F_m$ evenly divides $F_n$, then $m$ must evenly divide $n$. I don’t know a proof off the top of my head, but maybe you can find one?

Associate Professor of Computer Science at Hendrix College. Functional programmer, mathematician, teacher, pianist, follower of Jesus.
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### 5 Responses to Fibonacci multiples, solution 1

1. Zachary Abel says:

Great explanation! I especially like the diagrams illustrating sign changes.

I think your proof here also shows the converse: If $k$ does not divide $m$, then the remainder of $F_k$ modulo $F_m$ is one of $F_1,\ldots,F_{m-1}$ (possibly negated) and is therefore nonzero.

• Brent says:

Oh, hey, what do you know! I proved something without realizing it. What should we call this proof technique? “Proof by golly”?

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