Sunflower Heart.

There is a hypothetical species of rabbit with the following distinguishing features:
1. It is immortal,
2. It is a month old when it reaches sexual maturity,
3. It has a gestation period of a month and,
4. It breeds every month thereafter giving birth to a single male and a single female.

It also gives birth to the number series published by Leonardo Bonacci, aka Fibonacci, in the year 1202. If you start with a pair of these rabbits (consisting of a male and a female) at one day old, after one month you still have one pair, after the second month you have two pairs (the original pair plus the newborn), then three (the original plus last month's addition (now pregnant) and the latest newborn), then five, then eight, and so on. Each number is calculated by adding the two previous numbers together.

This series became famous a few years ago for playing a leading role at the beginning of Dan Brown's novel, "The Da Vinci Code," but it is far more interesting than that. Here are just a few of the features of the sequence.

As it continues, the ratio of the latest number divided by the previous number converges on the "Golden Ratio," a number much that is much used in art although I subscribe to the theory that to follow such trends is to produce art that merges into the crowd rather than standing out from it.

The number of spirals on a seed head in different orientations are Fibonacci numbers, a feature common to many similar structures such as pine cones and artichokes.

The rabbits mathematical method of reproduction occurs in the branching system of trees and so that the number of branches after each year's growth follows the sequence.

It was also Fibonacci who introduced the Arabic number system to Europe without which we would be struggling to do simple arithmetic; just try adding MCCLXXIII to DCCXXVII if you don't believe me. (The answer is MM.)

I’ve just posted “The Trek” from the 15th of June