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Monthly Archives: February 2016
Fibonacci numbers are golden
Recall that a “golden number” (this is not standard terminology) is a number such that one (or both) of or is a perfect square. In this post, I’ll explain Gessel’s proof that every Fibonacci number is golden. First, we need … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, computation, famous numbers, fibonacci, proof
Tagged Cassini, fibonacci, formula, lucas, square, test
1 Comment
Testing Fibonacci numbers: the proofs
In my last post I stated this surprising theorem: is a Fibonacci number if and only if one of is a perfect square. If one of is a perfect square, then let’s say that is a “golden number” (a nod, … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, computation, famous numbers, fibonacci, proof
Tagged fibonacci, formula, square, test
1 Comment
Testing Fibonacci numbers
From a recent post on Brian Hayes’ blog, bit-player, I learned the following curious fact: is a Fibonacci number if and only if either or is a perfect square. Recall that the Fibonacci numbers begin where each number is the … Continue reading
Posted in arithmetic, computation, famous numbers, fibonacci
Tagged fibonacci, formula, square, test
8 Comments
Network reliability
Over on my other blog I’ve started writing about an interesting but apparently nontrivial problem, which some readers of this blog may find interesting as well. Suppose you have a network of computers with some one-directional wires between them. Each … Continue reading
An amazingly symmetric icosahedron edge coloring
In my last post I showed off the stellated icosahedron I made out of folded paper: I also claimed that it uses a very particular and elegant color scheme. When I set out to make it, I did some googling … Continue reading
Origami stellated icosahedron!
Continuing what I started in December, I finally finished making a stellated icosahedron out of 30 Sonobe units. Each Sonobe unit corresponds to an edge of the icosahedron, and interlocks with three others to give the whole thing a remarkable … Continue reading
Posted in geometry, group theory
Tagged icosahedron, making, objects, origami, sonobe, stellated
4 Comments
Post without words #5, explained
If you stared for a while at the images in my previous post, you probably noticed some patterns, and maybe you even figured out some sort of rule or algorithm behind them. Commenter Yammatak expressed it as “You split it … Continue reading
Posted in pattern, pictures, posts without words, sequences, solutions
Tagged curve, Hilbert, Prouhet-Thue-Morse, sequence, space-filling, Thue-Morse
4 Comments
The Math Less Traveled 