A friend pointed me to an NPR audio segment - http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201108124
Which is an author interview, abstract - How Leonardo of Pisa, aka Fibonacci, Introduced The World To Numbers To carry out their calculations, merchants in the early 13th century used an abacus or a system called finger reckoning. Commerce changed when Leonardo of Pisa -- known today as Fibonacci -- published the first arithmetic textbook. Mathematician Keith Devlin talks about the history of arithmetic and his new book The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution. ~~ An interesting remark in the interview is that the sequence we are fond of was an incidental example among many that Fibonacci used to stir up interest. The talk show hawks the Devlin's new book "The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution" and a companion ebook "Leonardo and Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat Apple to Market by 800 Years" - they look interesting, especially the cheap ($3) Kindle book which purports to be the core content of the longer book. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
