Solved cryptogram
Each number in the Fibonacci sequence is simply the sum of the two that came before it.
Mathematics Facts, sourced to Wolfram MathWorld.
What it means
The rule is trivial and the consequences are not. The sequence counts the ways of climbing a staircase one or two steps at a time, appears in the branching of plants and in the spiral of a pine cone, and the ratio between neighboring terms converges on the golden ratio. Fibonacci introduced it to Europe in a book that was really about the advantages of Arabic numerals.
The claim comes from Wolfram MathWorld, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 70 letters over 19 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceWolfram MathWorld
- CollectionMathematics Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length70 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Wolfram MathWorldhard, 79 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 74 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldeasy, 71 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldeasy, 77 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 75 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 79 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 81 letters
- Wolfram MathWorldmedium, 76 letters