A variation of a puzzle called the “pick-up sticks problem” asks the following question: If I have some number of sticks with random lengths between 0 and 1, what are the chances that no three of ...

Leonardo Pisano (1170–1250), or Fibonacci, is perhaps best known for a remarkable sequence of numbers that arises out of a problem that involves breeding rabbits. The problem is contained in the third ...

Pine cones. Stock-market quotations. Sunflowers. Classical architecture. Reproduction of bees. Roman poetry. What do they have in common? In one way or another, these and many more creations of nature ...

Trying variants of a simple mathematical rule that yields interesting results can lead to additional discoveries and curiosities. The numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and 55 belong to a famous ...

This undated photo shows a spruce cone with a marked fibonacci number sequence. A numbers sequence thought up by the 13th century Italian mathematician known as Fibonacci plays out in plants, from ...

Here's a hypothetical and idealized question about rabbits, first posed by Leonardo di Pisa in 1202 (Leonardo is more commonly known as Fibonacci). There's a pair of rabbits in an enormous field. At ...

First mapped by a merchant's son in 13th-century Italy, the Fibonacci sequence has become one of the most influential patterns in science, design, and technology. When you think of math, you might ...