The Golden Ratio

The Golden Ratio is also known as "phi" and is equivalent to 1.618033988749895... It is an irrational number, like "pi", and is the solution to a quadratic equation. To understand what phi really is, imagine three lines different lengths. The first, A, is the same length as B+C. The ratio of A to B is the same as B to C. This only happens when A is phi-times B and B is phi-times C.

Phi appears in many forms of life and throughout the universe. Though it has been used in many areas, I will focus on its use in art and aesthetics. Artists use phi in their pieces to create beauty and harmony. For example, Leonardo da Vinci drew the De Divina Proportione (On the Divine Proportion) to illustrate the ratio and used it in his masterpiece The Last Supper (to view the work and more go to: http://goldennumber.net/classic/art.htm). Phi can be used to calculate realistic body proportions in humans, as well as plants and animals.

Math Questions

1. People hate math if they do not understand it.
2. I like math because I like to solve problems using logic. Before BTW, I went to a TAG school where academics were difficult and interesting. Now, I still find new things that exercise my brain and inspire me.
3. Math is important for many artists, including architects, designers, and composers.
4. I think math education can improve if teachers graded based on progress as well as scores.

To View the Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w&feature=PlayList&p=26C8F311E276EE4C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=13

Scatter Plots

Scatter plots can be used to show many types of data in numerous ways. At a TED conference, Hans Rosling created a scatter plot to show his data about the death rates in both developed and third world countries. He added many features to his graph that made it interesting.
Mr.Rosling created his graph to determine whether or not third world countries had a shorter lifespan and more childreen than developed nations. In his graph, Mr.Rosling made the independent variable the number of children per woman and the dependent variable life expectency. He represtented countries with dots on the graph, colorcoding them by continent and sizing them by population.
When he ran the program, the graph showed that, at first, the third world countries had many children and a short lifespan, while developed countries had few children and a long lifespan. However, as the years passed, most of the third world countries started to have fewer children and to live longer. This shows that, while the general opinion that third world countries have short lifespans and many children is still true about some, most nations have changed until the majority of the world has few children and long lifespans.

Kim Dorland's paintings use bright colors and interesting brushwork.