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Retorts

Fibonacci Failure

I was surprised and disappointed to see that you have opened your valuable pages to a numerologist ["Fibonacci Solar System"|, March 1998]. The search for a relationship -- any relationship -- without regard to any causal hypothesis, smacks of pyramidology. Why, other than for mystical reasons, base the calculations on Jupiter? The Fibonacci series is 1,1,2,3,5..., not 1,2,3,5...; perhaps your correspondent's spiritual attachment to, and the large size of, the planet Jupiter makes him count it twice.

Bode's "law", while having no theoretical basis, did at least highlight a gap in the planetary system, so stimulating a search which led to the discovery of the asteroids.

Before proceeding further with his pseudomathematical diversions, Mr Holzapfel should study Martin Gardner's article "The Cult of the Golden Ratio" (Skeptical Inquirer, vol 18, pp 243-7, 1994). He will there find references to whole booksful of searchings such as his own, and sadly of no more usefulness.

Mr Holzapfel appears to be falling into another trap, one into which many students with calculators also tumble; that is, quoting far too many decimal places. There seems little validity in giving Pluto's orbital diameter to six significant figures, given the uncertainty of the measurements and the extreme ellipticity of its orbit.

Bernard Howard, Christchurch