Math Geeking and Beekeeping

[Understudy]

Okay so I was watching Fringe not the best show on TV. But why the heck not. Every now and then something comes up that is fun. In the episode I was watching was a discussion on something I find fun(yeah I am a geek). Fibonacci numbers. The sum of the two preceding numbers. 0    1    1    2    3    5    8    13    21    34    55    89    144    233    377    610    987    1597    2584    4181    6765

You get the idea.

I then remembered that they had something to do with bees. Yeah my mind runs off on tangents like that. So I went into Wikipedia and took a look. Found it.

The bee ancestry code

Fibonacci numbers also appear in the description of the reproduction of a population of idealized bees, according to the following rules:

    * If an egg is laid by an unmated female, it hatches a male.
    * If, however, an egg was fertilized by a male, it hatches a female.

Thus, a male bee will always have one parent, and a female bee will have two.

If one traces the ancestry of any male bee (1 bee), he has 1 female parent (1 bee). This female had 2 parents, a male and a female (2 bees). The female had two parents, a male and a female, and the male had one female (3 bees). Those two females each had two parents, and the male had one (5 bees). This sequence of numbers of parents is the Fibonacci sequence.[38]

This is an idealization that does not describe actual bee ancestries. In reality, some ancestors of a particular bee will always be sisters or brothers, thus breaking the lineage of distinct parents.

See beekeeping and math very cool.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[sean]

One of the effects of extreme hunger, or is one too many stings :-D

[rdy-b]

REMINDS me of that ol joke do bears sleep in the woods -polar bears dont-what about the cape bee-RDY-B

[hollybees]

I can say 2 things.....
1) WOW!  :-D
2) WOW! ! :-D