Description
The random Fibonacci sequence is an integer random sequence {fn}, where f1 = f2 = 1 and the subsequent terms are determined from the random recurrence relation
A run of the random Fibonacci sequence starts with 1,1 and the value of the each subsequent term is determined by a fair coin toss: given two consecutive elements of the sequence, the next element is either their sum or their difference with probability 1/2, independently of all the choices made previously. If in the random Fibonacci sequence the plus sign is chosen at each step, the corresponding run is the Fibonacci sequence {Fn},
If the signs alternate in minus-plus-plus-minus-plus-plus-... pattern, the result is the sequence
However, such patterns occur with vanishing probability in a random experiment. In a typical run, the terms will not follow a predictable pattern:
Similarly to the deterministic case, the random Fibonacci sequence may be profitably described via matrices:
where the signs are chosen independently for different n with equal probabilities for + or −. Thus
where {Mk} is a sequence of independent identically distributed random matrices taking values A or B with probability 1/2:
Read more about this topic: Random Fibonacci Sequence
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)