Fibonacci Mobile
Alison Frane and Susan Goldstine
Galvanized steel wire, watercolor paper, watercolor
2006
On permanent display in the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, St. Mary's City, MD
As in the Fibonacci sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34,..., where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers, in this mobile each bar is the sum of the previous two bars. The initial 1 and 1 correspond to a disc and a loop respectively, 2 corresponds to a bar with a disc on one side and a loop on the other, 3 corresponds to a bar with a loop on one side and a 2-element bar on the other, and so forth.
The mobile contains a total of 21 hanging elements, of which 13 are loops and 8 are disks. There are eight 2-element bars, five 3-element bars, three 5-element bars, two 8-element bars, one 13-element bar, and one 21-element bar, which supports the entire mobile.
For further details and links to more Fibonacci mobiles, see my Fibonacci Mobile Web Page.