Golden ratio

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This article is about the number. For the Ace of Base album, see The Golden Ratio (album). For
the calendar dates, see Golden number (time).

Golden ratio

Line segments in the golden ratio

Representations

Decimal 1.618033988749894...[1]

Algebraic form

Continued fraction

Binary 1.10011110001101110111...

Hexadecimal 1.9E3779B97F4A7C15...
A golden rectangle with long side a and short side b adjacent to a square with sides of length a produces
a similar golden rectangle with long side a + b and short side a. This illustrates the relationship 

In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the
ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for
quantities  and  with 
where the Greek letter phi ( or ) represents the golden ratio.[a] It is an irrational
number that is a solution to the quadratic equation  with a value of[2][1]
1.618033988749....
The golden ratio is also called the golden mean or golden section (Latin: sectio
aurea).[3][4] Other names include extreme and mean ratio,[5] medial section, divine
proportion (Latin: proportio divina),[6] divine section (Latin: sectio divina), golden
proportion, golden cut,[7] and golden number.[8][9][10]
Mathematicians since Euclid have studied the properties of the golden ratio, including
its appearance in the dimensions of a regular pentagon and in a golden rectangle,
which may be cut into a square and a smaller rectangle with the same aspect ratio. The
golden ratio has also been used to analyze the proportions of natural objects as well as
man-made systems such as financial markets, in some cases based on dubious fits to
data.[11] The golden ratio appears in some patterns in nature, including the spiral
arrangement of leaves and other plant parts.
Some twentieth-century artists and architects, including Le Corbusier and Salvador Dalí,
have proportioned their works to approximate the golden ratio, believing this to
be aesthetically pleasing. These often appear in the form of the golden rectangle, in
which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter is the golden ratio.

Contents

 1Calculation

 2History

 3Applications and observations

o 3.1Architecture

o 3.2Art

o 3.3Books and design

o 3.4Flags

o 3.5Music
 o 3.6Nature

o 3.7Optimization

 4Mathematics

o 4.1Irrationality

o 4.2Minimal polynomial

o 4.3Golden ratio conjugate

o 4.4Alternative forms

o 4.5Geometry

o 4.6Relationship to Fibonacci sequence

o 4.7Symmetries

o 4.8Other properties

o 4.9Decimal expansion

 5Pyramids

o 5.1Mathematical pyramids

o 5.2Egyptian pyramids

 6Disputed observations

o 6.1The Parthenon

o 6.2Modern art

 7See also

 8References

o 8.1Explanatory footnotes

o 8.2Citations

o 8.3Works cited

 9Further reading

 10External links
Calculation

The Greek letter phi symbolizes the golden ratio. Usually, the lowercase form  or  is used. Sometimes the
uppercase form  is used for the reciprocal of the golden ratio, [12]

Two quantities  and  are said to be in the golden ratio  if

One method for finding the value of  is to start with the left fraction. Through simplifying
the fraction and substituting in 
Therefore,
Multiplying by  gives
which can be rearranged to
Using the quadratic formula, two solutions are obtained:
 and 

Because  is the ratio between positive quantities,  is necessarily the positive one. The
negative root is .

History
See also: Mathematics and art and Fibonacci number §  History

According to Mario Livio,

Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages,
from Pythagoras and Euclid in ancient Greece, through the medieval Italian
mathematician Leonardo of Pisa and the Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler, to
present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent
endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties. ... Biologists, artists, musicians,
historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the
basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio
has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of
mathematics.[13]

— The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number
Ancient Greek mathematicians first studied what we now call the golden ratio, because
of its frequent appearance in geometry;[14] the division of a line into "extreme and mean
ratio" (the golden section) is important in the geometry of
regular pentagrams and pentagons.[15] According to one story, 5th-century BC
mathematician Hippasus discovered that the golden ratio was neither a whole number
nor a fraction (an irrational number), surprising Pythagoreans.[16] Euclid's Elements (c.
300 BC) provides several propositions and their proofs employing the golden ratio, [17]
[b]
 and contains its first known definition which proceeds as follows: [18]
A straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole
line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the lesser. [19][c]

Michael Maestlin, the first to write a decimal approximation of the ratio

The golden ratio was studied peripherally over the next millennium. Abu Kamil (c. 850–
930) employed it in his geometric calculations of pentagons and decagons; his writings
influenced that of Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa) (c. 1170–1250), who used the ratio in
related geometry problems although he never connected it to the series of numbers
named after him.[21]
Luca Pacioli named his book Divina proportione (1509) after the ratio, and explored its
properties including its appearance in some of the Platonic solids.[10][22] Leonardo da Vinci,
who illustrated the aforementioned book, called the ratio the sectio aurea ('golden
section').[23] 16th-century mathematicians such as Rafael Bombelli solved geometric
problems using the ratio.[24]
German mathematician Simon Jacob (d. 1564) noted that consecutive Fibonacci
numbers converge to the golden ratio;[25] this was rediscovered by Johannes Kepler in
1608.[26] The first known decimal approximation of the (inverse) golden ratio was stated
as "about " in 1597 by Michael Maestlin of the University of Tübingen in a letter to
Kepler, his former student.[27] The same year, Kepler wrote to Maestlin of the Kepler
triangle, which combines the golden ratio with the Pythagorean theorem. Kepler said of
these:
Geometry has two great treasures: one is the theorem of Pythagoras, the other the
division of a line into extreme and mean ratio. The first we may compare to a mass of
gold, the second we may call a precious jewel. [6]
18th-century mathematicians Abraham de Moivre, Daniel Bernoulli, and Leonhard
Euler used a golden ratio-based formula which finds the value of a Fibonacci number
based on its placement in the sequence; in 1843, this was rediscovered by Jacques
Philippe Marie Binet, for whom it was named "Binet's formula".[28] Martin Ohm first used
the German term goldener Schnitt ('golden section') to describe the ratio in 1835.
[29]
 James Sully used the equivalent English term in 1875.[30]
By 1910, mathematician Mark Barr began using the Greek letter Phi () as a symbol for
the golden ratio.[31][d] It has also been represented by tau (), the first letter of the ancient
Greek τομή ('cut' or 'section').[34][35]

Dan Shechtman demonstrates quasicrystals at the NIST in 1985 using a Zometoy model.

The zome construction system, developed by Steve Baer in the late 1960s, is based on

the symmetry system of the icosahedron/dodecahedron, and uses the golden ratio
ubiquitously. Between 1973 and 1974, Roger Penrose developed Penrose tiling, a
pattern related to the golden ratio both in the ratio of areas of its two rhombic tiles and in
their relative frequency within the pattern.[36] This led to Dan Shechtman's early 1980s
discovery of quasicrystals,[37][38] some of which exhibit icosahedral symmetry.[39][40]

Applications and observations

Architecture
Further information: Mathematics and architecture

The Swiss architect Le Corbusier, famous for his contributions to

the modern international style, centered his design philosophy on systems of harmony
and proportion. Le Corbusier's faith in the mathematical order of the universe was
closely bound to the golden ratio and the Fibonacci series, which he described as
"rhythms apparent to the eye and clear in their relations with one another. And these
rhythms are at the very root of human activities. They resound in man by an organic
inevitability, the same fine inevitability which causes the tracing out of the Golden
Section by children, old men, savages and the learned." [41][42]
Le Corbusier explicitly used the golden ratio in his Modulor system for
the scale of architectural proportion. He saw this system as a continuation of the long
tradition of Vitruvius, Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man", the work of Leon Battista
Alberti, and others who used the proportions of the human body to improve the
appearance and function of architecture.
In addition to the golden ratio, Le Corbusier based the system on human
measurements, Fibonacci numbers, and the double unit. He took suggestion of the
golden ratio in human proportions to an extreme: he sectioned his model human body's
height at the navel with the two sections in golden ratio, then subdivided those sections
in golden ratio at the knees and throat; he used these golden ratio proportions in
the Modulor system. Le Corbusier's 1927 Villa Stein in Garches exemplified the Modulor
system's application. The villa's rectangular ground plan, elevation, and inner structure
closely approximate golden rectangles.[43]
Another Swiss architect, Mario Botta, bases many of his designs on geometric figures.
Several private houses he designed in Switzerland are composed of squares and
circles, cubes and cylinders. In a house he designed in Origlio, the golden ratio is the
proportion between the central section and the side sections of the house. [44]
Art
Further information: Mathematics and art and History of aesthetics before the 20th century

Leonardo's illustration of a dodecahedron from Pacioli's Divina proportione (1509)

Divina proportione (Divine proportion), a three-volume work by Luca Pacioli, was

published in 1509. Pacioli, a Franciscan friar, was known mostly as a mathematician,
but he was also trained and keenly interested in art. Divina proportione explored the
mathematics of the golden ratio. Though it is often said that Pacioli advocated the
golden ratio's application to yield pleasing, harmonious proportions, Livio points out that
the interpretation has been traced to an error in 1799, and that Pacioli actually
advocated the Vitruvian system of rational proportions.[45] Pacioli also saw Catholic
religious significance in the ratio, which led to his work's title.
Leonardo da Vinci's illustrations of polyhedra in Divina proportione[46] have led some to
speculate that he incorporated the golden ratio in his paintings. But the suggestion that
his Mona Lisa, for example, employs golden ratio proportions, is not supported by
Leonardo's own writings.[47] Similarly, although the Vitruvian Man is often shown in
connection with the golden ratio, the proportions of the figure do not actually match it,
and the text only mentions whole number ratios. [48][49]
Salvador Dalí, influenced by the works of Matila Ghyka,[50] explicitly used the golden ratio
in his masterpiece, The Sacrament of the Last Supper. The dimensions of the canvas
are a golden rectangle. A huge dodecahedron, in perspective so that edges appear in
golden ratio to one another, is suspended above and behind Jesus and dominates the
composition.[47][51]