The sequence begins with 0 and 1, with each subsequent number being the sum of the previous two according to the formula x n = (x n −1) + (x n −2): The power of the Fibonacci sequence lies in ...

The answer, it turns out, is 144 — and the formula used to get to that answer is what's now known as the Fibonacci sequence. "Liber Abaci" first introduced the sequence to the Western world.

But what makes this sequence so special and interesting? For starters, Fibonacci numbers can be found in the natural world all around us. Most flowers, for example, will have a number of petals ...

At first glance, the Fibonacci sequence might seem like no more than a bit of mathematical trickery. But look around, and it pops up again and again and again, in computer science and in nature.

I wasn't attracted to Dan Brown's 2003 bestseller The Da Vinci Code, but I gather that to decode "the code" you need a passing knowledge of the golden ratio and its mathematical mate the Fibonacci ...