Horrible Harry Cracks the Code (6 page)

M
rs. Funderburke used these Fibonacci numbers for her February fun: 5, 8, 13, 21. She was planning to make 1 her next number after 21.

But Mary's tattling changed that.

Mary waited three days before she tattled again. And when she did, it was to Mrs. Funderburke. “Harry knows your special set of numbers,” Mary said. “He cracked the code. But he doesn't tell us until we're all lined up, and he never stands in the winning place.”

Mrs. Funderburke said Harry was an honorable detective. But she would no longer use the Fibonacci numbers. She was just going to pick a number out of a jar.

Harry's reign as the world's second-best detective only lasted four days. But he loved every minute of it!

Who was Leonardo Fibonacci?

L
eonardo Fibonacci was a famous Italian mathematician who lived from around 1175 to 1250. He recorded a unique sequence of numbers found in patterns in nature and musical chords: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 . . .

How did Mr. Skooghammer teach Harry the Fibonacci numbers?

In the book
Horrible Harry and the Dungeon
, Mr. Skooghammer taught Harry about the Fibonacci sequence. He showed Harry things from nature like pineapples and pinecones that illustrate this number pattern.

Starting with this sequence, you can figure out the rest of the pattern: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 . . .

You add the last two numbers and the sum is the next number. So one plus one is two, one plus two is three, two plus three is five, three plus five is eight, five plus eight is thirteen, and eight plus thirteen is twenty-one!

Can you guess which number comes next?

Can you write the Fibonacci numbers up to almost one thousand?

(Go to
www.suzykline.com
to find out the answer!)