FREE ESSAY ON LEONARDO FIBONACCI

LEONARDO FIBONACCI

Leonardo Fibonacci
Leonardo Fibonacci was born in Pisa, Italy around 1175 to Guilielmo Bonacci. Leonardo's
father was the secretary of the Republic of Pisa and directed the Pisan trading colony.
His father intended on Leonardo becoming a merchant. His father enlisted him in the Pisan
Republic, sending him to various countries. As Leonardo continued to travel with his
father, he acquired mathematical skills while in Bugia. Fibonacci continued to study
throughout his travels, which ended around the year 1200.
Leonardo began writing books on number theory, practical problems of business
mathematics, surveying, advanced problems in algebra and recreational mathematics.
Leonardo's recreational problems became known as story problems and became mental
challenges in the 13th century. Of all the books he wrote we still have copies of Liber
abbaci (1202), Practica geometriae (1220), Flos (1225), and Liber Quadratorum. Sadly his
books on commercial arithmetic Di minor guisa is lost as well as his commentary on Book X
Euclid's Elements. 
One of Leonardo's contributions to mathematics was his introducing the Decimal Number
system into Europe. He was one of the first people to introduce the Hindu-Arabic number
system into Europe. Fibonacci also introduced the Decimal Positional System, which
originated from India and Arabia. Fibonacci wrote story problems in his book, Liber
abbaci. Examples of those problems are, "A spider climbs so many feet up a wall each day
and slips back a fixed number each night, how many days does it take him to climb the
wall. These problems became quite popular. Another accomplishment was his forming the
Fibonacci Series. It is a series of number in which each member is the sum of the two
preceding numbers. For example, a series beginning 0, 1 ... continues as 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,
13, 21, and so forth. The exact period of this discovery is not known. Leonardo was a
bright man, but left much of his solutions to his questions or problems without
explanations. No way for some finding how he arrived at it.
During Leonardo's lifetime he was recognized for his efforts and contributions to
mathematics. In 1225 Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick ll recognized Leonardo for his work. In
1240 the Republic of Pisa awarded Fibonacci a salary for his work as well. It is not
known for sure, but Leonardo is said to have died sometime after he received his salary.
His many contributions are well remembered today by people in the math community.