Monday, July 26, 2004

The Divine Proportion

If there ever exists the concept  magic numbers,  no number can be more magical than the PHI.  It's value is 1.618 . It's even more magical than PI.  This number is also called - The Divine Proportion meaning the ratio of God.  There are reasons why it is considered the most beautiful number in the universe.

The number is derived from Fibonacci  sequence,  a progression famous not only because the sum of the adjacent terms equals the next term, but because the quotients of adjacent terms posses the property of approaching the number 1.618 - PHI !

The most astonishing aspect of this number is its role as a fundamental building block  in nature. Plants, animals and even human beings all posses dimensional properties that adhere with eerie exactitude to the ratio of PHI is to 1.

PHI 's  ubiquity in nature exceeds coincidence.  Observe it yourself.
 
-     Divide the number of female honey bees by the number of male honey bees in any beehive - we will get ratio PHI .
 
-     Nautilus,  is a kind of cephalopod mollusk spiral having a spiral, pearly-lined shell  that pumps gas into it's chambered shell to adjust its buoyancy.  The ratio of each spiral's diameter to next is - PHI . 

-      Sunflower's  seeds grow in opposing spirals. The ratio of each rotation's diameter to the next is again PHI .
 
-      Spiral pinecone petals, leaf arrangement on plant stalks,  insect segmentation - all display obedience to The Divine Proportion.
 
-      In a human body,  divide the distance from tip of the head to the floor by the distance from belly button to the floor an the number you will get is 1.618 !

-      Divide the distance from human shoulder to the finger tips  by the distance from elbow to the finger tips  and you have guessed it right. 

          
-      Ratio of hip to the floor by knee to the floor yield the same number.

-      Finger joints, toes, spinal divisions - all have PHI associated with them.

-      Leonardo Da Vinci's, Michelangelo in their compositions widely used the properties of this number .  
     
-      We can find PHI in the architectural dimensions of the Greek Parthenon, the pyramids of the Egypt, even in UN building of New York .

-      The number PHI  has appeared in the organizational structures of Mozart's sonatas,  Beethoven's Fifth symphony and was even used by Stradivarius to calculate the exact placement of f-holes in the construction of his famous violins.

So guys, each of us are a walking tribute to this magical number, the number of mother nature.  No prizes for guessing from where I pinched this information from!




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