The Tale of Leonardo Bonacci and his Introduction of Roman Numerals

 

The Tale of Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci and his Introduction of Roman Numerals

Did you know that it was through the works of Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci that the Roman Numeral System replaced the then commonly used Roman Numeral System? He was responsible for the square root notation and the bar that is used by fractions today. But who was Fibonacci?

Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician, number theorist and author. In fact he was arguably ‘the most talented Western mathematician of the middle ages’. Born in Pisa, educated in North Africa and having studied mathematics in Bugia (Algeria) Fibonacci travelled around the Mediterranean coast, meeting with many merchants and learning about their systems of doing arithmetic. Through his education and conversation, he realised the superiority of the Hindu-Arabic system which included the utilisation of zeros and a place-value system (decimals) which the Roman numerals lacked. In fact, doing arithmetic through Roman numerals typically included the utilisation of an abacus. In short, it was faster and more precise.

On an amusing and related note, a survey conducted by Civic Science (An American market research company) conducted a poll in which 3, 624 respondents answered the question “Should schools in America teach Arabic numerals as part of their curriculum?”. The question was designed to explore the concepts of bias and prejudice of poll respondents. The poll did not disappoint and showed that an alarming 56% of Americans do not think we should teach the Hindu-Arabic system with 15% having no opinion. Of those who 56% who think we should not teach the Western world’s standard numerical system it was formed of 72% of Republican supporting respondents and 40% of Democrat supporting respondents. Civic Science also found that 30% of Republicans supported bombing ‘Agrabah’ - the fictional city of Disney’s Aladdin back in 2015.

Fibonacci went on to show the world what is now our current numbering system in his Magnus Opus ‘Liber Abaci’ or ‘The Book of Calculation’. In his book it demonstrated the practical use and value of the Hindu-Arabic system by applying the numerals to commercial bookkeeping, converting weights and measures, calculation of interest, money changing and other applications. It also contains the following famous problem:

"A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits can be produced from that pair in a year if it is supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair, which from the second month on becomes productive?"

The answer is the sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55… in which the last number is the sum of its two precedents. This is the famous Fibonacci sequence which is typical in many areas of both Science and Mathematics. The sequence is an example of a recursive sequence.