Tag Archives: square

Post without words #32

Posted in posts without words | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Book review: Tales of Impossibility

[Disclosure of Material Connection: Princeton Press kindly provided me with a free review copy of this book. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own.] Tales of Impossibility: The 2000-Year Quest to Solve … Continue reading

Posted in books, review | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The route puzzle

While poking around some old files I came across this puzzle: (Click for a larger version.) I didn’t make it, and I have no idea where I got it from (do you know?). But in any case, wherever it comes … Continue reading

Posted in arithmetic, challenges, number theory, proof, puzzles | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Golden numbers are Fibonacci

This post is fourth in a series, proving the curious fact that is a Fibonacci number if and only if one (or both) of or is a perfect square; we call numbers of this form golden numbers. Last time, I … Continue reading

Posted in arithmetic, computation, famous numbers, fibonacci, proof | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

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 , , , , , | 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 , , , | 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 , , , | 8 Comments

A self-square number

[This is the seventh in a series of posts on the decadic numbers (previous posts: A curiosity, An invitation to a funny number system, What does “close to” mean?, The decadic metric, Infinite decadic numbers, More fun with infinite decadic … Continue reading

Posted in arithmetic, infinity, iteration, modular arithmetic, proof | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments