BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

FIBONACCI SERIES 2)4)5)

An additive series of consecutive numbers whose ratios develop in the following way

This series was introduced by the Italian mathematician FIBONACCI in 1220.

As can be observed, every successive term of the progression 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc,… is the sum of the two former ones.

On the other hand, the limit of the ratio's sequence is √5+1)/2 = 1,618…, the so-called golden section.

Both the series and the golden section appear in numerous natural structures and seem to reflect opposite constraints in field dynamics. It thus reflects and explains the genesis of specific forms, as already shown for example by SCHIMPER, BRAUN and BRAVAIS for plants, in the 19th Century. It is also implicit in d'Arcy W. THOMPSON's "Growth and Form" (1916).

Its use in systemic modelling could probably be much developed. A.A DAVYDOV published in 1992 a very stimulating paper on this subject: "Theory of Harmony of Proportions and Functions in Social Systems" (1992).

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]


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