Michael Perkins

The Fibonacci Sequence is a special sequence of natural numbers discovered by the Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci in the thirteenth century. The sequence begins with 0, 1 and continues with each subsequent number being the sum of the previous two numbers.

    0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 ...

The Fibonacci numbers can be found throughout nature and art. In nature, for instance, the number of lines in the spirals on a sunflower is almost always a Fibonacci number. Similar patterns are found in pine cones and pineapples. Also, the sequence of the ratios of adjacent Fibonacci numbers approaches the constant known as the Golden Mean which figures prominently in architecture and art.

In the video below, composer and pianist Bence Peter performs a composition based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Peter mapped the Fibonacci numbers onto the diatonic scale to generate the notes used in the composition.