Stern's Diatomic Sequence 0, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 3, 1, 4

Stern's diatomic sequence is a simply defined sequence with an amazing set of properties. It appeared in print in 1858 and has been the subject of numerous papers since. Our goal is to present many of these properties, both old and new. We present a large set of references and, for many propert...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American mathematical monthly 2010-08, Vol.117 (7), p.1
Main Author: Northshield, Sam
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Mathematical functions
Random walk theory
Topological manifolds
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Stern's diatomic sequence is a simply defined sequence with an amazing set of properties. It appeared in print in 1858 and has been the subject of numerous papers since. Our goal is to present many of these properties, both old and new. We present a large set of references and, for many properties, we supply simple proofs or ones that complement existing proofs. Among the topics covered are what these numbers count (hyperbinary representations) and the sequence's surprising parallels with the Fibonacci numbers. Quotients of consecutive terms lead to an enumeration of the rationals. Other quotients lead to a map from dyadic rationals to the rationals whose completion is the inverse of Minkowski's ? function. Along the way, we get a distant view of fractals and the Riemann hypothesis as well as foray into random walks on graphs in the hyperbolic plane. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0002-9890
1930-0972