Number of Gears in Future Transmissions to Follow Fibonacci Numbers
Leonardo Fibonacci tragically died only 769 years before his numbers were finally put to use.
Hot on the heels of Audi’s announcement that the new A8 luxury sedan will offer an 8-speed transmission to compete with the 8-speed automatic from Lexus and 7-speed transmission from Mercedes, scientists now confirm that future transmissions will follow Fibonacci’s number sequence to determine how many gears they have.
“Most people remember Fibonacci numbers from 8th grade math. But in reality, they are proving to be a useful guide in figuring out how many gears to put into our next-generation of transmissions,” said Elgar Loveless of BorgWarner’s Ithaca, NY facility.
According to Wikipedia, Fibonacci’s sequence of numbers is formed by starting with 1 and 0, and generating the next number by adding the two before it. Therefore, Fibonacci numbers include 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 and 34.
Nissan has announced that they will not rely on the Fibonacci transmission strategy. Spokesman Trent Capone told MetaCars that “We already have a continuously variable transmission. That means an infinite number of gears. And you know what? Infinity is more than 8. Or 34, or whatever the hell else they come up with. Nothing is bigger than infinity. Holy crap…! We have a brand called Infiniti too. It all makes sense now.”
[...] a two-speed automatic transmission. Eight-speed automatics are now available. What’s next? Follow the Fibonacci sequence: “Most people remember Fibonacci numbers from 8th grade math. But in reality, they are [...]