This book is not absolutely perfect, but it is so much better than any other one on the subject that it deserves a 5-star rating. The majority of books on Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio fall into three categories: (1) Books for children, (2) Mystical mumbo-jumbo, and (3) Books claiming you can use Fibonacci numbers to win in the stock market (!). Even Mario Livio's book, which is better than most, uses so much of its space to _debunk_ some of the mystical mumbo-jumbo that it de-emphasizes the wonderful patterns that can be found in the Fibonacci sequence, which is beautiful enough in its mathematical properties that one doesn't need to make such digressions. Dunlap's book, by contrast, _does_ emphasize those patterns. And when it's not directly addressing the Fibonacci sequence's properties, it's discussing things like the golden ratio and Penrose tilings, which are completely within the category of mathematics related to the topic.
I really enjoyed the book, even though it has some typographical errors and minor omissions. The formulas collected in the third appendix alone justify buying the book. I could wish that there were more given, but this is the best collection I have seen.
Author(s): R. A. Dunlap
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 170
Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 2
Copyright......Page 3
Preface......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
1 Introduction......Page 8
2 Basic Properties of the Golden Ratio......Page 14
3 Geometric Problems in Two Dimensions......Page 22
4 Geometric Problems in Three Dimensions......Page 30
5 Fibonacci Numbers......Page 42
6 Lucas Numbers and Generalized Fibonacci Numbers......Page 58
7 Continued Fractions and Rational Approximants ......Page 70
8 Generalized Fibonacci Representation Theorems......Page 78
9 Optimal Spacing and Search Algorithms......Page 86
10 Commensurate and Incommensurate Projections......Page 94
11 Penrose Tilings......Page 104
12 Quasicrystallography......Page 118
13 Biological Applications......Page 130
Appendix I Construction of the Regular Pentagon......Page 144
Appendix II The First 100 Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers......Page 146
Appendix III Relationships Involving the Golden Ratio and Generalized Fibonacci Numbers......Page 150
References......Page 160
Index......Page 164
Back Cover......Page 170