The most beautiful number

[Tank]

I read in a book that this was the most beautiful number and altough this post has no importance at all...just wondered why is was the most beautiful number.

Drum Roll Please.... tltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltltl

1.618

[Crash]

Beats me???????

thats an awfully long drumroll for 1.618

[YT2095]

and the book offered no explaination as to why this might be the case?

what was it about and was it fiction or something?

it`s certainly a catchy title if Cryptic is your "thing"

[jordan]

I beleive you refer to phi. The proportion which everything is said to look best. For example, a rectangle with sides in a ration of 1:1.618 is said to be the most pleasing to look at.

 

http://goldennumber.net/

[Dave]

Indeed, there's a lot of strange ratios and things that involve phi generally.

 

(as a brief overview, if you work out F_n/F_n-1 where F is a term in the Fibonacci sequence, then phi is equal to the limit of this ratio as n tends to infinity.)

[YT2095]

if "beauty" is subjective (and I`m sure we can all agree on that) then how can it be quantified?

least of all have a ratio attatched to it!? )

[Skye]

You have to realise these were guys that wore tights into old age, how can you trust them about what looks good?

[Crash]

Brash move.........no wonder your rep is low;)

[Sayonara]

if "beauty" is subjective (and I`m sure we can all agree on that) then how can it be quantified?

least of all have a ratio attatched to it!? )

Perhaps you're going about this the wrong way.

 

If Phi is present in many systems that are part of something we say is "beautiful", then perhaps beauty is not as subjective as we thought.

[Tank]

The book was The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It's been quite some tiem since I read the books so I'm not sure if it was explained. Although, I do remember when he wrote about it he talked about how 1.618 was a reaccurring number in events that happened on earth. Dan Brown did such a good job by making fact and fiction bind together to make pure fact that it's hard to comprehend if all the situations where 1.618 appeared. Now that I know of it the number might have just been 618, but I'm not too sure. If anyone has read the book correct me if I am wrong...constructive critisism please. Another strange thins is that 618 is my area code...LoL

[jordan]

It was phi. I believe Robert Langdon was using it to teach a class about anatomy and how phi was a proportion often found in plants and animals. On the website I posted a while ago, there is a nice little section on the left detailing where all this apears. Some I think is a little bit of a stretch, but it's is interesting for a minute or two.

[Dave]

Brash move.........no wonder your rep is low;)

 

Indeed - it can't be helping

[-Demosthenes-]

I CAN'T EDIT IT! So everyone stop giving it a bad report.

 

Mods, will you delete it already?

[Crash]

I didn't give you any points for it, i thought it was funny-ish, least no one will quote ya;)

[Glider]

I CAN'T EDIT IT! So everyone stop giving it a bad report.

 

Mods' date=' will you delete it already?[/quote']

Consider it done. Think before posting in future.

[Dave]

Indeed. It's posts like that which will lower your reputation quite considerably.

[NSX]

?

 

Anyway, the most beautiful number (more like a percentage) to me is 100%

 

 

I love seeing it on tests

 

thought i've only gotten one so far this year....

[Dave]

I got 98.7%, which was particularly galling :\

[-Demosthenes-]

Ah, I'm sry. I'm glad it's gone. I'll DEFINITLY be more careful from now on and be more mature in my posting.

sry

[Dave]

Indeed, I think it's for the best.

[Phi for All]

I can't believe I didn't see this thread earlier! Phi is indeed the most beautiful number. Take the ratio of your whole arm to the elbow to fingertip bit, you get 1.618 to 1. The same for your legs and knees to toes. Elbow to fingertip, wrist to fingertip the same. Your face has lots of these phi ratios, like from top of the head to chin, middle of the eyes to chin is 1.618 to 1.

 

In nature, spirals found in shells and seed clusters are always the same ratio. Take the width of a sunflower's center to the length of its petals and you get phi to 1. A dolphin's total length to its tail to dorsal fin ratio is phi to 1. The pentagram was considered a magical symbol because ALL of its lines bisect each other in this same ratio.

 

Many artists and architects take advantage of this naturally occuring ratio. It was named after the Greek sculptor Phidias. The Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan and the Great Pyramid at Ghiza both use it in their designs. Raphael, DaVinci and Michaelangelo all believed it evoked special emotions from humans and used it to proportion all their human subjects.