Why is 11 times the 7th term of a fibonacci series equal to the sum of 10 terms?

As far as I know, it seems to be nothing more than coincidence. Say you have your starting numbers, $a$ and $b$. Your ten terms are $a,b,a+b,a+2b,2a+3b,3a+5b,5a+8b,8a+13b,13a+21b,21a+34b$

the sum of which is $55a+88b$, which just happens to $11$ times the seventh term in your sequence.


If $F_n$ is the $n$th Fibonacci number (that is, $F_0=0$, $F_1=1$ and $F_{n+2}=F_{n+1}+F_n$), you can prove by induction that

$$\sum_{k=0}^n F_k = F_{n+2}-1$$

It's obviously true for $n=0$, and if it is true for $n$, then

$$\sum_{k=0}^{n+1} F_k = F_{n+1} + \sum_{k=0}^{n} F_k = F_{n+1} +F_{n+2}-1 = F_{n+3}-1$$

Thus it's true for all $n$.


Your numerical trick is thus simply $143=F_{12} - 1 = 11 \cdot F_7$. But notice that in general, $n \not | F_{n+1} - 1$. For example, $609=F_{15}-1$, which is odd, thus not divisible by $14$.

You can also check for which values of $n$ it happens that $n|F_{n+1}-1$: $1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 19, 24, 29, 31, 34, 41, 46, 48, 59, 61, 71, 72, 79, 89, 94, 96, 100...$

This is sequence A219612 in OEIS, but if there is a pattern, it's not obvious.


As a follow-up, if you have a look at prime numbers in the preceding list, you get $11, 19, 29, 31, 41, 59, 61, 71, 79, 89, 101, 109, 131...$

Apparently, they are primes congruent to $\pm1$ modulo 5 (see OEIS A045468), but I don't have a proof.

If true, it would mean that for a prime $p$,

$$p | F_{p+1}-1 \iff p \equiv \pm 1 \pmod 5$$


@Claude Leibovici

In fact, there is a different way to answer this question using characteristic polynomials.

All Fibonacci-like sequences are associated with the same characteristic polynomial $x^2-x-1$ due to their common property : $$\psi_{n+2}-\psi_{n+1}-\psi_{n}=0.$$

Let us define a new sequence in the following way : $$\chi_n:=(\psi_{n+1}+\psi_{n+2}+...+\psi_{n+10})-11 \psi_{n+7}. \tag{1}$$

We want to show that, for any $n \geq 0$, $\chi_n=0$.

This is an easy consequence of the fact that the characteristic polynomial of sequence $\chi_n$, i.e.,

$$p(x):=(x+x^2+...+x^9+x^{10})-11x^7$$

is divisible by $(x^2-x-1).$

Precisely :

$$p(x)=x(x^2 - x - 1)(x^7 + 2x^6 + 4x^5 - 4x^4 + x^3 - 2x^2 - 1).$$