BLOG Carl McTague mathematician, composer, photographer, fiddler

16 May 2018 | categories: Photographs

Bierstadt Lake is perched on a moraine near the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park. After spotting the painter’s surname on a map, Vitaly Lorman and I climbed 600 feet to reach the moraine, then made our way through a dense pine forest to arrive at the lake, which instantly called to mind Albert Bierstadt’s 1876 painting Mount Corcoran. [The lake is incidentally 7 miles from the Stanley Hotel, where in 1974 Stephen King wrote The Shining.]

27 Nov 2017 | categories: Mathematics

# A Dynamical Proof That the Ratio of Successive Fibonacci Numbers Approaches the Golden Ratio

In his 1611 essay On the Six-Cornered Snowflake, Johannes Kepler observed that the ratio of successive Fibonacci numbers $F_n/F_{n-1}$ approaches the golden ratio $\tfrac12(1+\sqrt5)$. [Recall that $F_1=F_2=1$ and $F_{n+1}=F_n+F_{n-1}$ for $n\ge2$.]

Many proofs have since been found. Here is a quick, dynamical one I thought of which I have been unable to find in the literature.

Proof: Consider the function $f(x)=(1+x)/x$. The sequence of ratios of successive Fibonacci numbers is the orbit of $F_2/F_1=1$ under $f$, i.e. $$f(F_n/F_{n-1})=F_{n+1}/F_n.$$ On the other hand, $f$ has precisely two fixed points, the roots of $x^2-x-1$, one positive (the golden ratio), the other negative. Since $f'(x)=-1/x^2$, $f$ is a decreasing function for $x>0$. And $f(2)=3/2$ while $f(3/2)=5/3$. So $f$ maps the interval $[3/2,2]$ into itself. In fact, $f$ is a contracting mapping on $[3/2,2]$ (with Lipschitz constant $4/9$) since $$|f(x)-f(y)|=|y-x|/|xy|\le\tfrac49|y-x|$$ for $x,y\in[3/2,2]$. By the Banach fixed point theorem, then, all orbits in $[3/2,2]$ approach the golden ratio. Although $1$ is not in $[3/2,2]$, $f(1)=2$, so the orbit of $1$ approaches the golden ratio. ∎

This proof can be extended to show that the conclusion holds even if the first two terms $F_1,F_2$ of the Fibonacci sequence are altered, provided their ratio $F_2/F_1$ is not $\tfrac12(1-\sqrt5)$ (the negative, unstable fixed point of $f$).

In a sense this explains why the limit is the golden ratio: being a fixed point of $f$ is the defining property of the golden ratio.

11 Jul 2017 | categories: Photographs

# Chimney Bluff

A drumlin eroding into Lake Ontario.

15 Mar 2017 | categories: Photographs

# Der Himmel über Rochester

27 Mar 2016 | categories: Photographs

# Letchworth Lower Falls

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