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.