this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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There is no such thing as a Stupid Question!
Don't be embarrassed of your curiosity; everyone has questions that they may feel uncomfortable asking certain people, so this place gives you a nice area not to be judged about asking it. Everyone here is willing to help.
- ex. How do I change oil
- ex. How to tie shoes
- ex. Can you cry underwater?
Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca still apply!
Thanks for reading all of this, even if you didn't read all of this, and your eye started somewhere else, have a watermelon slice ๐.
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Since the sequence is only defined from the third number on ("add the previous two numbers"), the first two numbers must be stipulated. That is, the sequence gets from zero to one because we force it to, and then we let it do its thing.
Can you talk more about stipulation. Is that basically the axiological equivalent of "it is because I say it is" and you have to agree if you want to play?
You can stipulate whichever two numbers you like to start, but anything that doesn't get you to two and three won't begin the specific sequence that we name after Fibonacci (it's worth mentioning that Fibonacci himself started with one and two, not zero and one). According to the linked discussion, apparently interesting things happen when you choose numbers other than zero and one, so it's not like you absolutely have to choose those two numbers as a starting point or anything.
Does using non 1 or 0 starts fundamentally alter the proportions/ratios or whatver, like the overall shapes
That's beyond my ability to authoritatively answer. You'd have to check out the linked thread above or ask a mathematician. I'm interested to hear the answer if anyone perusing the comments can speak to it.
I wonder too if you use a negative
Awesome thank you that fits with the second part of my play cryptograph goofing project