Fibonacci Box, I,

The Fibonacci numbers are ubiquitious in nature and mathematics. This puzzle sculpture embodies some of their counter-intuitive properties. In a problem published 800 years ago, Leonardo of Pisa, a.k.a. Fibonacci formulated his famous rabbit problem: beginning with a newborn fertile pair of rabbits, how many pairs will accumulate monthly if each pair produces another pair from their second month on? The solution of this leads to a recursively defined sequence of integers, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, … . This sequence has the property that two consequtive terms added give the next term.

The Fibonacci Box has a frame of 8 × 21 units and 14 pieces. The 2 unit parts and the other 12 pieces fill the frame; the 12 pieces without the 2 unit parts also fill the frame. Mysterious? A whole book could be written about the resolution of the mystery and it implications, but the box is more fun.

Photo credit is Sunforge Studios