A
Austin Rochford
austinrochford.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2013
Austin Rochford is a statistician writing about Bayesian methods, math, algorithms, and Python data analysis.
What HN saysHN commenters link his posts on Fibonacci generating functions and why rational numbers are rare among the reals as clear explanations.
15HN people shared it
4linked it in comments
28stories submitted
243story points
2 years agolast shared
2013people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Generating Functions and Fibonacci Numbers4 people · 24 points · first shared 2013 · 10 comments on HN
- 2The Median-of-Medians Algorithm3 people · 119 points · first shared 2013 · 31 comments on HN
- 3Solving Battleship with Approximate Bayesian Computation and Thompson Sampling3 people · 8 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 4Bayesian Survival Analysis in Python with Pymc32 people · 5 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 5Duplicating Spheres and the Banach-Tarski Paradox2 people · 4 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 6There Are Almost No Rational Numbers2 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 7My Most Interesting Interview Problem1 people · 36 points · first shared 2013 · 51 comments on HN
- 8The Importance of Sequential Testing1 people · 19 points · first shared 2014 · 6 comments on HN
- 9Polynomial Regression and the Importance of Cross-Validation1 people · 6 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Euler's Formula in sympy1 people · 3 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 11Generalized Composition in Haskell1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12Verifying Typeclass Laws in Haskell with QuickCheck1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 13Modeling Tide Heights and Kayaker's Heuristics1 people · 2 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 14Prior Distributions for Bayesian Regression Using PyMC1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 15The Mathematics of Building a Heap in Linear Time1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
engnr567 · 2018-03-10
Exactly. And fibonacci numbers also have a closed form which can be (in theory) evaluated in O(1):
http://austinrochford.com/posts/2013-11-01-generating-functions-and-fi…
monktastic1 · 2018-01-18
The rationals have measure zero, so almost all reals are irrational. The Cantor set is an example of an uncountable set which also has measure zero.
http://austinrochford.com/posts/2013-12-31-almost-no-rationals.html
roywiggins · 2016-04-26
It does- I remember enough from Linear Algebra that vector spaces aren't completely foreign, which helps a lot.
I think the generating-function method[1] is a case of pulling out a powertool (generating functions) to prove a simple thing to demonstrate the power of the tool, whereas your explanation takes the direct route and connects more of the threads about why it's true.
[1] found an instance here: http://austinrochford.com/posts/2013-11-01-generating-functions-and-fi…
alejohausner · 2016-04-25
Google "fibonacci generating functions", for a more careful derivation. The first hit is:
http://austinrochford.com/posts/2013-11-01-generating-functions-and-fi…