MY FAVORATE MATHEMATICIANS

Leonardo
Pisano
Bigollo
was
an
Italian mathematician. He is usually better known by
his nickname, Fibonacci, and is considered to be
among the foremost European mathematicians of the
medieval era. He was instrumental in bringing the
widespread use of Arabic numerals to the West. The
Fibonacci number sequence is named after him,
although he merely referenced it rather than devising
it himself.

Leonardo Pisano Bigollo

Born: 1170 in Italy

Died: 1250 (at about age 80)
Nationality: Itallian

Bigollos Personal Life

The details of Fibonaccis childhood and upbringing are almost completely
unknown, and what has been deduced has been worked out largely from notes
he placed in his own works. There are no contemporary drawings of him, all
portraits having been produced after his death.
However, he is thought to have been born in the Italian city of Pisa, the son
of a prosperous merchant who may have been the Pisan consul in modern-day
Algeria. For this reason, he is often said to have received an education
somewhere in northern Africa.
While still a youngster, Bigollo went with his father to assist his commercial
and diplomatic operations in the nearby sultanate of Almohad. While he was
there, he experienced the use of the system of Hindu-Arabic numerals, at that
time almost unknown in the West, where Roman numerals were still the standard.
He quickly realized that this new number system would make arithmetical
operations far quicker and allow them to be carried out with greater efficiency
than the old Roman system.

Bigollos Mathematical Works

During the last few years of the 12th century, Fibonacci undertook a series of
travels around the Mediterranean. At this time, the worlds most prominent
mathematicians were Arabs, and he spent much time studying with them. In
about 1200, he returned home to Italy, and two years later he published his
book, Liber Abaci.
This work, whose title translates as the Book of Calculation, was extremely
influential in that it popularized the use of the Arabic numerals in Europe, thereby
revolutionizing arithmetic and allowing scientific experiment and discovery to
progress more quickly.
In Liber Abaci, Fibonacci used as an example a problem regarding the
growth of a rabbit population. The sequence of numbers which he used to solve
the problem was that which later became known as the Fibonacci sequence.
However, it had been known in India several centuries earlier; this was merely the
first time that it had been seen in Western mathematics.
The fact that the ratio of successive numbers in the sequence tends to the
Golden Ratio of around 1.618:1 may or may not have been known to Fibonacci;
in any event, he did not mention it in his book.

Bigollos Other Works

Fibonacci published several other mathematical works, although not all have
survived. These include a compendium of surveying, works focusing on
geometrical problems, and a commentary on the Elements of Euclid.
He also wrote extensively on commercial arithmetic, although these writings
have been lost. The Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, was interested in science
and mathematics, and Fibonacci stayed with him for a while. By 1240, the
mathematicians standing was such that he was granted a salary by the Pisan
Republic.
Fibonacci died in his home city at some point no later than 1250, although
the precise date and circumstances of his death are unknown.