Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Exploring Diagonals In The Calkin-Wilf Tree, Matthew Gagne

Undergraduate Review

For centuries, people have been interested in patterns. Even in that which appears random, humans have been trying to understand the underlying order of things. Mathematicians throughout time have studied many phenomena, including infinite sequences of numbers and have been able, at times, to see structure. Many have found the satisfaction, even joy, of discovering patterns in sequences. A typical way to describe this is by a recursive formula. A recursive definition defines a term in the sequence using the previous terms in the sequence. Even more satisfying than a recursive formula is a closed formula. With this, one can …