Aesthetic uses
It has been claimed that the ancient Egyptians knew the golden
ratio because ratios close to the golden ratio may be found in the positions or
proportions of the Pyramids of Giza.
The ancient
Greeks already knew the golden ratio from their investigations into geometry, but there is no evidence they
thought the number warranted special attention above that for numbers like π (Pi), for example.
Studies by psychologists have been devised to test the idea that the golden
ratio plays a role in human perception of beauty. They are, at best, inconclusive. Despite this, a
large corpus of beliefs about the aesthetics of the golden ratio has developed.
These beliefs include the mistaken idea that the purported aesthetic properties
of the ratio was known in antiquity. For instance, the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, is often claimed to have been constructed
using the golden ratio. This has encouraged modern artists, architects,
photographers, and others, during the last 500 years, to incorporate the ratio
in their work. As an example, a rule of thumb for composing a photograph is
called the rule of
thirds; it is said to be roughly based on the golden ratio.
It is also claimed that the human body has proportions close to the golden
ratio.
In 1509 Luca Pacioli
published the Divina Proportione, which explored not only the mathematics
of the golden ratio, but also its use in architectural design. This was a major
influence on subsequent generations of artists and architects. Leonardo Da Vinci
drew the illustrations, leading many to speculate that he himself incorporated
the golden ratio into his work. It has been suggested for example that Da
Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa employs the Golden Ratio in its
geometric equivalents.
The Architect Le Corbusier used the golden
ratio as the basis of his Modulor
system of Architecture.
Golden ratio
applied to page and margin dimensions in
book design
The ratio is sometimes used in modern man-made constructions, such as stairs
and buildings, woodwork, and in paper sizes; however, the series
of standard sizes that includes A4 is based on a ratio of
and not on the golden ratio. The average ratio of the sides of great paintings,
according to a recent analysis, is 1.34. [1]. Credit cards are generally
3 3/8 by 2 1/8 inches in size, which is less than 2 % from the golden ratio.
The ratios of justly
tuned octave, fifth, and major and minor sixths are ratios of consecutive numbers of the Fibonacci
sequence, making them the closest low integer ratios to the golden ratio. James Tenney reconceived his
piece For Ann
(rising), which consists of up to twelve computer-generated upwardly glissandoing tones (see Shepard tone), as having each
tone start so it is the golden ratio (in between an equal tempered minor and major sixth) below the previous tone, so that the
combination tones produced by all consecutive tones are a lower or higher pitch
already, or soon to be, produced.
Ernő Lendvai
(1971) analyses Béla
Bartók's works as being based on two opposing systems, that of the golden
ratio and the acoustic
scale. French composer Erik
Satie used the golden ratio in several of his pieces, including Sonneries
de la Rose+Croix. His use of the ratio gave his music an otherworldly
symmetry.
Woodcut from
the
Divina Proportione by
Luca Pacioli (1509) depicting the golden
proportion as it applies to the human face.
The construction of a pentagram
is based on the golden ratio. The pentagram can be seen as a geometric shape
consisting of 5 straight lines arranged as a star with 5 points. The
intersection of the lines naturally divides each length into 3 parts. The
smaller part (which forms the pentagon inside the star) is proportional to the
longer length (which form the points of the star) by a ratio of 1:1.618... It is
thought by some that this fact may be a reason why the ancient philosopher Pythagoras chose the pentagram as
the symbol of the secret fraternity of which he was both leader and founder.
The famous
"Golden Ratio" sculpture in Jerusalem. This fifty-ton stone and gold
installation is based on the Fibonacci numbers. The "Golden Ratio" was
contributed by the Australian sculptor Andrew Rogers. (Photo credit:
IsraCast)
There is no known general algorithm to arrange a given number of nodes evenly
on a sphere (for any of several definitions of "evenly"), but a useful
approximation is obtained by dividing the sphere into parallel bands of equal
area and placing one node in each band at longitudes spaced by a golden section
of the circle, i.e. 360°/φ ≅ 222.5°. This approach was used to arrange mirrors
on the Starshine 3
satellite.