Friday, October 24, 2014

Friday!

It's Friday! Even though I've been able to sleep and lay around all week, who can't be excited about Fridays? The bunnies were too busy this week to carve pumpkins, so they will be going all out tonight with their implements of destruction. I'll try to stay out of the way! :) My masters have been talking about some delicious cold weather meals, I think they will be making chili tonight. I'll ask them nicely if I can lick the bowl. On Wednesday, they brought out lots of stretchy cobwebs to hang around the house in honor of Halloween. I don't mind their enthusiasm, but it got in my fur! *scratches*.  My walks have been cut short due to the rain, but it's a fair tradeoff. It's nice to lay inside, listening to the rain.

For your math lesson today, let us consider a mathematician by the name of Fibonacci. Fibonacci developed a system of exponential counting when related to reproductive growth, namely rabbits. *Rabbits enter room to peer at screen while I type*. Fibonacci supposed that a newly-born pair of rabbits, one male and one female, are put into a field. Assume rabbits mate once a month, and are old enough to mate after one month. Fibonacci also supposed the rabbits never die, and each litter consists of a pair of rabbits (one male and one female). How many pairs of Wabbits will there be after 1 month? 3 months? 9 months?

At the end of the 1st month, they mate, but there is still only 1 pair.
At the end of the 2nd month, there will be 2 pair.
At the end of the 3rd month, the original pair have a second litter, for a total of 3 pairs.
At the end of the 4rth month, the original pair have a third litter, and the pair born two months ago produces their first pair, making 5 pairs.

This formula can continue as follows:
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144...

As you can see, the field quickly fills up with rabbits!! *Rabbits are still watching me type, this is kind of eerie* This sequence is often found in nature, in the same manner as the rabbits. Take a tree for example. most trees have a single trunk, which extends into branches. Although nature has its quirks, a pure Fibonacci tree would look like the following:


It can be lots of fun to look around and see math everywhere. Many leaves have a Fibonacci number of petals. An oak leave may have 3, or 5 petals, and most field daisies have about 34 petals (important to remember when playing the "He/She loves me, He/She loves me not" game).

Anywho, hope you enjoyed the lesson! I wanted to talk about sharks, and the possibly extinct Megalodon shark, but the wabbits came in and I didn't want to scare them. Happy Friday everyone!

Woof!

1 comment:

theskett said...

I never thought of Fibonnaci in terms of rabbits, only sunflowers and pinecones (where it fails in much the same way a tree and branches fail). A field full of rabbits sounds dangerous.
For that matter, your comment that the rabbits were "too busy" to work on pumpkins is a scary thought!
Next time write about the shark. That sounds safer.