Most likely you have heard what about the golden ratio and some of the properties it holds. But do you know what it really holds? How is it used or found in mathmetics and where is it found in nature? The website plans on addressing these questions and helping you better understand what the ratio is. For a quick run down and to get a preview on what will be expressed in this sight check out the following video. Intro
The Golden Ratio (also known as the golden section, the golden number, the golden cut, the divine proportion, the Fibonacci number,and the mean of Phidias) has intrigued and fascinated some of the best mathematicians, biologists, astronomers, and artists throughout the history of the world. (Dunlap, 1997)
This ratio is an irrational number and φ= (1+√ 5 )/2 which is approximately 1.61803399... The golden number can be found in some common geometries, famous paintings and architecture, and even in biological organisms (Fett 2006)
Euclid (365 BC -300 BC) was the first to formally examine what came to be known as the golden ratio. He described it as "dividing a line in extreme and mean ratio" in Book VI of Euclid's Elements. (goldennumber.net, 2012)
This ratio may have been known even before this time. While formal explanation for phi can be found in their work, the golden ratio can be found in the architecture of ancient Egyptians, in Plato's geometries of heavenly spheres, in ancient India's trigonometric identities, and in the Pythagorean's geometries.
In the 1202 AD Leonardo de Pisa published his Liber Abaci which contained his famous rabbit problem. This problem led to the Fibonacci sequence. In the early 1700s Robert Simpson discovered that the consecutive solutions converged to the golden ratio.
In the 1500s many Renaissance Artists started using the golden ratio in their painting and sculptures.
(Fett, 2006)The first book on the golden ratio De Divina Proportione written by Luca Pacioli and Illustrated by Leonardo DaVinci was published in 1509 AD. (Dunlap, 1997)
In the 1900s Mark Burr named the ratio as phi (φ) after the Greek Sculptor Phideas and is still used today, before this time it had been referred to as tau (τ). (Fett, 2006)