Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport

Collage of Engineering and Technology– Smart Village

Basic and Applied Sciences Department - Cairo

Mathematics
Lecture#3
Euclidean Geometry: Fibonacci Numbers
Plane Transformations: Plane Symmetries

Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim Dr. Mohamed Salah

 Fibonacci Numbers

A certain man put a pair of

rabbits in a place
surrounded on all sides by
a wall. How many pairs of
rabbits can be produced
from that pair in a year if
it is supposed that every
month each pair begets a
new pair, which from the
second month on becomes
productive?
𝑓1 = 1, 𝑓2 = 1, 𝑓3 = 2, 𝑓4 = 3, 𝑓5 = 5, 𝑓6 = 8 … ,
𝑓𝑛 = 𝑓𝑛−1 + 𝑓𝑛−2 2
 Fibonacci Numbers

Flowers, Fibonacci Numbers, and the Golden Ratio

One common property of these three beautiful

plants is that the seeds are distributed in
spiraling patterns:
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 Fibonacci Numbers
Flowers, Fibonacci Numbers, and the Golden Ratio

Spirals winding clockwise. Spirals winding counterclockwise.

There are exactly 13 spirals winding in the clockwise

direction and 21 spirals in the counterclockwise direction .
Are these numbers of any significance?
𝑓1 = 1, 𝑓2 = 1, 𝑓3 = 2, 𝑓4 = 3, 𝑓5 = 5. Continue a few
more steps: 𝑓6 = 𝑓4 + 𝑓5 = 3 + 5 = 8, 𝑓7 = 𝑓5 + 𝑓6 = 5
+ 8 = 13, 𝑓8 = 𝑓6 + 𝑓5 = 8 + 13 = 21. 4
 Fibonacci Numbers
How the Fibonacci Numbers are Linked to
the Golden Ratio
The link between these two goes even deeper.
Here is what happens with the quotients of the initial
consecutive Fibonacci numbers.

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 Fibonacci Numbers
A Fibonacci Spiral

If the diagonals of the first two small squares are each 1

unit long, then the next diagonal (the next line egment in
the spiral) is 2, then 3, 5, 8, 13, …, as indicated in Figure
1.4.13. We call this a Fibonacci spiral: the length of each
line segment in the Fibonacci spiral is the sum of the
lengths of the previous two line segments.
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 Example 1
(a)The 27th Fibonacci number is 196418, and the 26th
Fibonacci number is 121393. Find the 24th Fibonacci
number.
(b)We know that the 19th Fibonacci number is 4181 and the
22nd Fibonacci number is 17711. What is the 20th Fibonacci
number and what is the 21st Fibonacci number? [Note:
There is a shorter solution than the slow walk from 𝑓1 all the
way to 𝑓20 and 𝑓21 .]

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Exercises Page 62

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 Plane Symmetries
A transformation of the points in the plane is a
rearrangement of all the points in the plane.
If no two points are moved to a single position, then we say
that the transformation is one-to-one.
A transformation is onto if all of the positions in the plane
are achieved by some points in the rearrangement.
bijection is a transformation that is both onto and one-to-one.
A transformation is rigid if it preserves distances. Such
transformations are also called symmetries or isometries.
Symmetries are always bijections
Given a point A in the plane, we denote the point we get
after applying the transformation f to the point A by f(A).
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 Plane Symmetries
In the following illustrations, we will show what happens
only to a few chosen points after the action of a symmetry.
Example 1: A Rotation

Fix a point O in the plane and let f be the rotation around O

(the center of rotation) through 45° (the angle of
rotation).
Notation: The rotation around a point O and through an
angle α will usually be denoted by rot(O, α).
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 Example 2
Rotate the line segment AB through 60°, around the point O

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 Plane Symmetries
Example 2: A Translation

A translation (denoted by h). Every point in the plane is

moved along a fixed vector, called the vector of translation.

Notation: The translation along a vector 𝒗 will usually be

denoted by 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒗 .

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 Plane Symmetries
Example 3: A Reflection

line of reflection.

We can think of the line as a two-sided mirror: every point on

one side of the line is reflected into a point on the other side,
and vice versa. So, in the illustration, we have g(A) = B, and
also g(B) = A. The points on the line l are not moved.
Notation: The reflection with respect to a line 𝑙 will usually be
denoted by 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍 .
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 Example 3
The triangle B in Figure is obtained from the
triangle A by applying a symmetry to the
points on the plane. Describe that symmetry.
[Hint: A composition of two symmetries.]

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 Plane Symmetries
The symmetry we get as a result of repeatedly applying
symmetries is called a composition of symmetries.
first applying 𝑓 to all points A in the plane, and then
applying 𝑔 to all points f(A). So, for every point A in the
plane, we have 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓(𝐴) = 𝑔(𝑓(𝐴)). In general, a
composition of a transformation 𝑓 followed by a
transformation 𝑔, denoted by 𝑔 ∘ 𝑓,
Example 4: A Composition of Two Symmetries
we depict the composition of a
rotation through 45° around O,
followed by a translation in the
direction of the indicated vector.

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 Plane Symmetries
Example 5: Glide Reflections
Reflections followed by
translations in the direction
parallel to the line of reflection are
usually called glide reflections.

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 Plane Symmetries
Example 6: Constructing the Center and the
Angle of a Rotation

We identify two such pairs of points in Figure (A and f ( A ),

then B and f ( B )). The center of rotation is at the
intersection O
The angle of rotation is the angle AOf ( A ) in that direction
(clockwise, since the angle was given to be negative).
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 Plane Symmetries
Example 7: Constructing the Line of Reflection

Construct (using a ruler and a compass) the bisector of the

line segment between the two chosen points. That bisector is
the line of reflection we sought.

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Exercises Page 72

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