Fibonacci

Fibonacci was the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, whose writings helped introduce Hindu-Arabic arithmetic to Europe.

Liber Abaci: A mathematical treatise Leonardo of Pisa published in 1202, presenting Hindu-Arabic numerals and arithmetic to Latin readers. This book carried his practical methods for calculation into European commercial life.
Republic of Pisa: A medieval maritime republic and commercial power centered on the Italian city of Pisa. Fibonacci came from Pisa, whose trade connected Italian merchants with North African markets.
Positional notation: A numeral system in which a digit's value depends on its position. Place value made the calculations in Fibonacci's treatise more efficient than many Roman-numeral methods.
Fibonacci sequence: The integer sequence beginning 0, 1, in which each later term is the sum of the two preceding terms. A rabbit-population puzzle in Liber Abaci introduced the recurrence now associated with his name.
Hindu-Arabic numeral system: The positional decimal numeral system using digits 0 through 9, developed in India and transmitted westward through Arabic scholarship. Fibonacci's advocacy helped make this system better known among European merchants and scholars.
Bugia: The medieval name for Béjaïa, a North African port in present-day Algeria. Fibonacci encountered commercial calculation there while accompanying his merchant father.
Zero: A number representing no quantity and a digit marking an empty place in positional notation. The zero in the Hindu-Arabic system enabled the compact written calculations he promoted.
Fibonacci numbers: The terms of a sequence in which each term after the first two is the sum of its predecessors. The sequence's numbers arise in the puzzle that made his name famous centuries later.
Commercial arithmetic: Practical calculation used in trade, accounting, currency exchange, and related commercial activities. His worked examples showed how positional arithmetic could solve merchants' everyday problems.
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi: A ninth-century Persian mathematician whose works helped transmit Indian numerals and algebra into Arabic scholarship. The arithmetic tradition Fibonacci promoted in Latin Europe had traveled through Arabic mathematical texts.

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