Book review The golden ratio - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Book review The golden ratio - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog 1.61803398874989484820458683436563811772030917980576286213544862270526046281890 244970720720418939113748475408807538689175212663386222 Doesnt look like much does it? What if I told you, that this number is significant in such varied circumstances as: * The construction of pentagons * The number of spirals in sunflowers * The construction of sea-shells * Fractals Spooky, huh? The number is called variously the golden mean, the golden section number, the golden ratio or simply phi (pronounced fee), and in the book The Golden Ratio The story of phi, the worlds most astonishing number, Mario Livio explains the history and relevance of this number. He looks at many phenomena that are definitely linked to this number (such as the ones mentioned above) and dismisses some which are waaaay more speculative such as phi appearing in the proportions of the cheops pyramids and in Mona Lisa. Basically, phi is the ratio you get, if you divide a line in two different lengths so that the ratio between the shorter and the longer piece is identical to the ratio between the longer piece and the whole line. This ratio is 1.618033 It is not only an irrational number (ie. one that cant be written as a fraction of two integers), but it is in a sense the most irrational of all irrational numbers. Heres a more in-depth description. It takes a rare writer to write an interesting book about math, but Livio pulls it of magnificently, pulling together the history, the math, the beauty and the weeeeeird properties of phi. And heres phi to 20.000 decimal places. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related