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Fibonacci Numbers - One Minute Sprint
The first two numbers in the sequence are 1 and 1. After that, each number is the sum of the previous two numbers. How high can you go in just one minute?
I dont think zero is in it. If 0 was considered a real number it wouldnt work, cause 0 with previous number would remain zero, so sequence would infinitely be just endless zeros.
1 is the first number, add it with previous number which doesnt exist, making the 2nd number just 1 again.
Now you have 1 with previous number 1 for 2, and so forth.
It's not endless zeros preceding. For the recurrence relation to hold, that is f(n-2)+f(n-1)=f(n), we would end up with a reversed fibonacci sequence alternating positive and negative before the 0. The sequence looks like:
... -8, 5, -3, 2, -1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ...
Either way, the choice of whether or not to include 0 is pretty arbitrary.
Yeah, stats are wacky on this one. The least guessed are the 18th and 25th in sequence, while the huge numbers at the end are all in the 70% guessed. Yet 5 of the first 11 are lower than 50%. Weird.
Curious, I don't know. The stats have settled down somewhat from the numbers reported by db27 and joeythelemur, but they're still looking a bit out of whack (now 77% have got 2, 75% have got 5 and 34% have got 121393. However, I would have thought that the % for each number guessed would reduce steadily as the answer number increases, which hasn't happened here yet). I suspect the stats will iron out further as more quizzers post attempts here.
Percentages as of today with each increasing answer are: 99-80-77-99-75-75-89-75-97-91-71-77-88-80-77-78-66-32-24-42-38-37-36-14-34. I'll have another look in a few days to see if these are smoothing out to something more logical.
I'd also like to mention that most quizzes of this type (sprint) have a relatively smooth bell curve in the "percentage correct" chart on the stats page. This one has very noticeable dips and rises at odd intervals. It was more evident a few hours ago but still... really odd.
The lack of a smooth bell curve is probably because some sums are a lot easier to calculate quickly than others. For example more people got 14 right than 13 but that's probably because the 14th number is 144 + 233, which is quite a simple sum to do in your head as you don't have to carry the 1 anywhere, so unless you get to that sum with a second to spare you'll probably get past that easily. Meanwhile the next sum is 233 + 377 which is easier to mess up (e.g. you might say 600 if you're rushing).
That still seems unlikely as you will need the previous numbers of the sequence to calculate the next ones. For example, you cannot pull 144 and 233 out of nowhere and add them to get the next number without getting 55 or 89. I think it's down to cheating, but this cheating strategy is quite weird. This doesn't really matter as much anymore since it's much smoother now.
I think it's because some people have memorised numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, rather than doing the mental additions. 121393 is quite a memorable number.
As I learned from the Time/Life book on mathematics more than a half century ago, Fibonacci numbers appear in the pattern of seeds within a sunflower, which follows the Fibonacci sequence. https://www.treehugger.com/nature-blows-my-mind-hypnotic-patterns-sunflowers-4859272.
1 is the first number, add it with previous number which doesnt exist, making the 2nd number just 1 again.
Now you have 1 with previous number 1 for 2, and so forth.
... -8, 5, -3, 2, -1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, ...
Either way, the choice of whether or not to include 0 is pretty arbitrary.
The eventual Fibonacci ratio of one number divided by the next is 0.6180....
-Emma