How To Tell A Fib
The Mathematical Way.
Autistic Writing, Poetry, Music, Photography, and Art at:
ArtfullyAutistic.com
The Fib
I
am
the best
of waiters
at a fine cafe.
When at the door two regulars,
each always arriving at precisely the same time.
I greeted each kindly, led them to their tables, each holding the same book by their side.
I pulled out the chair gently to seat the lady, then showed the gentleman his table, and pulled the chair that sat him so they sat eye to eye.
As their tables were so close, I read the menu to both, reciting the specials I’d memorized in rote, there ooh’s and ah’s emoted when of a certain dish I spoke, knowing I had their order as of this dish they ordered both.
The chef began his cooking as I busied about the house, and as I passed amongst the tables I noticed the two lone diners had opened their books and begun to read, and with a bookmark as a demarcation it seemed they were nearly in the same place, and with each a pen and a notebook rested table top, yet not a letter was written on either page.
Which is exactly when it hit me, I knew what I would do, so with earnest apprehension I proceeded pen in hand to the two I had seated eye to eye, and first to the lady I wrote the one word “Fate” upon her page, and next to the gentleman, the words “Serendipity awaits”, and as I turned, I heard the two begin to chat, as I was thinking “Random acts of beauty never turn out bad”, and though my smile was beaming, I felt a little sad, then walked outside the cafe, never returning, never looking back, as the movie only had cast me but in that single act.
Puzzled?
Though it has origins in ancient Sanskrit, this poetic prose/flash fiction is written in a specific sequential format which has come to be known as the Fibonacci Sequence (or Fib, for short), which is a numbering pattern that follows a unique sequence.
Fibonacci, also known as Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Bigollo Pisan (1170-1250), was considered to be the most talented Western Mathematician’s of the Middle Ages. He orginally used the formula to determine the population of rabbits mating over the period of the year. I won’t go into detail about rabbit populations, but if interested, you can read more about it on WikipediA
The Sequence
The Fibonacci Sequence follows a pattern such that any next number in the sequence is the sum of the two previous numbers, as follows:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and so on…
Warning – Math Ahead: If all this upcoming Math bores the h*ll out of you, just jump down to the section titled: What Does All Have To Do With Poetry?
The Formula
To better explain what you are looking at, the following examples will help:
Example 1
Start with the third number in the sequence: 1 (n)
Notice how the number 1 is the sum of the two previous numbers? That is to say that the number 1 in the third position is the sum of 0 in the first position plus the number 1 in the second position, resulting in the simple arithmetic of 0 +1 = 1, or from the formula where
n = (n-1) + (n-2), it follows that 1 = (1–1) + (1– 0)
Example 2
Start with the fourth number in the sequence: 2 (n)
Notice how the number 2 is the sum of the two previous numbers? That is to say that the number 2 in the forth position is the sum of 1 in the second position plus the number 1 in the third position, resulting in the simple arithmetic addition of 1 +1 = 2, or from the formula where n = (n-1) + (n-2), it follows that 2 = (2–1) + (2–1)
What Does All Have To Do With Poetry?
The Fib has taken on many forms over the years, but the basic gist of it is that each line of the poem must follow the Fibonacci sequence in the number of syllables contained within each line of the poem’s form.
The zero in the first position is not counted by syllable, and it is used to reference the title of the poem. After that, each line must follow the progressing Fibonacci pattern sequentially exactly by syllable count for each line in the poetic form presented.
Note: Due to the limitations of screen size and the fact that changes in font size are very limited on Medium, it is impossible to display a Fib with a large number of lines. Since my Fib reached large Fibonacci numbers – up to149 syllables in length, it was impossible to display the Fib in it purest. So, as I work-around I used hard returns to delineate each line.
Even reducing the font to as low as allowed, the results were so small they were unreadable and looked like a triagular shaped ant colony or a battleship? See below:
As an example of matching syllables to lines, let’s use my Fib, showing the count of syllables per line:
The Golden Ratio
It is hard to mention the Fibonacci Sequeuce and not mention its close realtionship to what is known as the Golden Ratio, which and is symbolized by the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet (Uppercase Φ, an Lowercase φ) and is mathematically equal to 1.618.
We find the golden ratio when we divide a line into two parts so that the long part divided by the short part is also equal to the whole length divided by the long part as in:
When looking at the Fibonacci sequence as a ratio, each pair approaches the Golden Ratio, getting even closer as the numbers get higher, for example:
1/1 = 1
2/1 = 2
3/2 = 1.5
5/3 = 1.6666666666
8/5 = 1.6
13/8 = 1.625
21/13 = 1.6153846153
34/21 = 1.6190476190
55/34 = 1.6176470588
89/55 = 1.6181818181
144/89 = 1.6179775280 … etc
The Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratio/Spiral In Nature
In geometry, a golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor is φ, the golden ratio. That is, a golden spiral gets wider (or further from its origin) by a factor of φ for every quarter turn it makes. Such is the case for the spriral shape of the nautilus shell.
Other places you can find the Golden Ratio/Spiral/Fibonacci Sequence are in honeybees, the leaves of a stem, oak and other trees, the fruit sprouts of a pineapple, the flowering of an artichoke, an uncurling fern, the arrangement of a pine cone’s bracts, elephant tusks, sunflowers and other flowers, the shape of the human body, the dimensions of the Stradivarius Violin, nautilus shells, hurricanes, galaxies, and even the cosmic constants of the topology of space-time, thus affecting the entire universe.
Conclusion
For somthing really cool to look at, check out the infinitely repeating expanding Golden Spiral on WikipediA !
