Phi: A Magic Number, 1.618033

Heard of the golden ratio from Jevon. Been forgetting to find out more about it. Only thought of it suddenly when I went shopping for books at Borders, after dropping by the Apple shop to look at Apple Shuffle.

Extracts from article

“Egyptians used the Golden Ratio in creating structures that had a base to height ratio of 1.6, which approximates Phi.”

“For example, the ratio of the average width of a human mouth to a human nose is 1.61.”

Extract from Da Vinci Code

“Yes, PHI,” Langdon replied. “One-point-six-one-eight. Want another example? Measure the distance from your shoulder to your fingertips, and then divide it by the distance from your elbow to your fingertips. PHI again. Another? Hip to floor divided by knee to floor. PHI again. Finger joints. Toes. Spinal divisions. PHI. PHI. PHI. My friends, each of you is a walking tribute to the Divine Proportion.”

Read more about it here and where it is mentioned in Da Vinci Code

Interesting? Go read up about it. 😉