Thesis: The Golden Ratio is not only a simple proportion, but also a proportion connected

to our lives in a way that it can revolutionize the world by providing explanations of how
nature functions.

A line division that creates a proportion where the longer half is related to the
whole line the same way the shorter half is related to the longer half is called the Golden
Ratio. In simpler form, the ratio is 1:1.618 and ongoing. The number is very irrational
and it is special because we are seeing more and more implications of it in our lives as
time advances. There were many different implications of the Golden Ratio throughout
history. Many of them were different, and that resulted in the different names used to de-
fine the Golden Ratio such as Phi, Divine Proportion, Golden Number, etc. The Golden
Ratio was given the name of Phi (φ), the first Greek letter of Phi Dias who was a Greek
sculptor around 490 to 430 B.C. The man who decided the name, Mark Barr, picked Phi
Dias because he had included the Golden Ratio in his sculptures. The first real definition
of the Golden Ratio was written around 300 B.C. in Euclid's The Elements, a mathemat-
ics textbook that defined mathematical terms, when Euclid defined proportion with these
words: "a straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the
whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the lesser." This definition relates
to Mario Livio's comment in his article from Plus Magazine, “Who could have guessed
that this innocent-looking line division would have implications for numerous natural
phenomena ranging from the leaf and seed arrangements of plants to the structure of the
crystals of some aluminum alloys, and from the arts to the stock market?” This question
describes all the impacts that the golden ratio had on different things in life, such as art,
economy, science and in general how things are made to be. For art, the golden ratio has
revolutionized architecture and photography because people try to structure things so that
it could make the best appeal possible. For economy, the golden ratio has some relation
with the stock market. For science, the golden ratio can be related to nature, structure of
human beings, animals and other living things. This "line division" did indeed lead to
discoveries in market trends, explanations for the way nature grows, and the structures of
many famous pieces of artwork.

When referring to the Golden Ratio, many times the Fibonacci sequence is men-
tioned as well. This is because there is a major connection between the two things. In the
12th century an Italian mathematician, Leonardo Pisano Bigollo (now known as Leon-
ardo of Pisa or Fibonacci), experimented with an ideal scenario of population growth us-
ing rabbits. He was able to generate from this the well-known Fibonacci sequence. In this
number sequence, the numbers go in a pattern as follows: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... It may not
look very impressive at first, but this sequence was where the Golden Ratio had general-
ized from. “The Phi function is intimately related to the Fibonacci series of numbers,
named for the Renaissance mathematician who called attention to its properties. In a Fi-
bonacci series, a number is selected: the next number in the series is the sum of that num-
ber and the preceding number. (Bangs, 158)” When any number from the sequence is di-
vided by the previous number, the answer will come close to 1.618. This was also a sig-
nificant point about the numbers from the sequence. The relationship between the Golden
Ratio and the numbers from his sequence, Fibonacci had contributed greatly to the
Golden Ratio's discovery. In the recent years, the Fibonacci numbers were taken further
and had matched with the major “top or bottom” of market trends. It's one way the
Golden Ratio is connected to how our economy functions. “Since January 14th, 2000,
when the Dow Industrials hit its closing all-time high — over six years ago, we have
noted that every major subsequent top or bottom has occurred in a Fibonacci .618/.382
ratio number of trading days with another top or bottom and January 14th, 2000. In many
cases, even minor tops or bottoms have occurred in a phi ratio with another top or bot-
tom. We call these pairs Fibonacci phi mates. Further, because this has been occurring
with uncanny regularity, we have been able to successfully identify future trend turn dates
within +/- 3 days by applying the same phi mate analysis into the future. (McHugh,
<http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/mchugh/2006/0327.html>)" It isn't only in
the Dow industry where the numbers from the Fibonacci Sequence connect to the eco-
nomic patterns because according to comment made by Steve Belmont featured in the
Daily Reckoning article , “Since markets are human creations, they respond to human
rhythms. Like all human emotions, fear and greed tend to reach a fever pitch and then,
invariably, wane. One could say market corrections are basically physical manifestations
of waning human emotions. Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci figured out a way
to measure the ebbs and flows in human emotions. This measurement is called a Fibo-
nacci sequence or the “golden ratio. (Denning,
<http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/golden-ratio/2007/08/13/>)” It is not impossible that
everything we do in our lives can be connected to the Golden Ratio. This makes a huge
discovery, impacting our social lives and our society in general. There is a pattern in what
we do because we are human beings, and this pattern can be used to improve our lives,
advance further in our abilities to contribute to the society. This would be a start for the
revolutionizing of our world from using our lives to further advance ourselves.

There were architecture and paintings in history that used the Golden Ratio. “The
golden section, or ‘golden rectangle’, is said to be one of the most visually satisfying of
all geometrical forms. This calculable formula for beauty perceived in a ratio of perfect
proportion was known to the Greeks who, as early as the fifth century BC, had already
applied its harmonious balance to the Athenian Parthenon. It was also much used by Ren-
aissance architects and artists in their triumph over matter. Through mathematics, they
believed, beauty and harmony could be calculated. (Porter,
<http://books.google.com/books?id=I6ilomUOgoMC&printsec=frontcover>)” Since the
Golden Ratio is known to make things look pleasing to the eye, there were many famous
buildings and artwork made using the ratio. Some examples are the Great Pyramid of
Giza, The Parthenon, and the "Sacrament of the Last Supper" painting by Salvador Dali.
These examples are all very well-known works of art, and they include the ratio that
makes them so visually appealing. A golden triangle can be drawn from The Pyramid of
Giza because "Half of the base, the slant height, and the height from the vertex to the cen-
ter create a right triangle. When that half of the base equal to one, the slant height would
equal to the value of Phi and the height would equal to the square root of Phi. The picture
below is of the Pyramid of Giza, and the yellow outlined triangle in the middle is a
golden triangle. (<http://library.thinkquest.org/trio/TTQ05063/phibeauty4.htm>)

The Parthenon has golden rectangles in its exterior structure. The picture below is
of the Parthenon and the yellow outlined squares on the building are squares with meas-
urements of the Fibonacci numbers, therefore it also portrays the golden rectangle.

In Salvador Dali's painting, you can divide the picture into rectangles with lengths
and widths that equal to the Golden Ratio.

Many Renaissance artists used the Divine Proportion in their works. This applica-
tion had been seen in some of Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings. Although for Leonardo Da
Vinci's "Mona Lisa" piece that had included the Golden Ratio (a golden rectangle that
framed Mona Lisa's face perfectly), nothing really proves that Da Vinci had purposely
used the Golden Ratio in his painting. "For The Da Vinci Code, the lingering questions
left behind are how much of traditional church teachings are fact, and why people are so
willing to accept things that are probably not true. Our φ Code ends with two similar
questions. The literature on the golden ratio is full of claims that have little or no basis in
fact and in some cases are known to be false. Why is it that these myths live on? And why
are we so eager to believe everything we are told?
(<https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/greenberg.nsf/0/3ad194fabe1afec785256e9400823537?Open
Document>)" In Keith's article, he talks of how the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has
given us possible truths that cannot be really proven. An example is when he mentions
the paintings of artists who we assumed to have applied the Golden Ratio to their works,
but in reality there is no actual proof that the artists were aware of this or that they used
the ratio for a purpose other than an aesthetic one. On the other hand, Keith concludes
with the fact that the connection of the Golden Ratio with nature is definite, and it pro-
vides us with the explanations for the nature of growth. Even though some artists like Da
Vinci, do not give the impression that they were well aware of using the Golden Ratio in
their works, there still are other artists and famous people who were aware of it and did
use the Golden Ratio. The reason for believing that Da Vinci had probably used the ratio
in his works is because of his relationship with Luca Pacioli. Pacioli was the one who
wrote The Divine Proportion, a book about the Golden Ratio. "Luca Pacioli wrote a book
called De Divina Proportione (The Divine Proportion) in 1509. It contains drawings
made by Leonardo da Vinci of the 5 Platonic solids. Leonardo Da Vinci first called it the
sectio aurea (Latin for the golden section).
(<http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMAT6680.2000/Obara/Emat6690/Golden%20Rat
io/golden.html>)" Illustrating for a book about the Golden Ratio makes Da Vinci an artist
who had used the ratio in his paintings too. The ratio makes the figures in a painting look
proportional and that is why it seems very appealing to the viewer. Renaissance artists
have realized this and that is why they use the ratio in their works. Still the ratio exists in
works by modern artists and in photography as well. “There are a number of basic rules
about the framing of a picture. Most basic is the Golden Ratio (1:1.618), which is sup-
posed to be the most pleasing to view.
(<http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/James_Gentles/KAP_Photo_Technique.htm>)” The
way pictures are framed and taken are based on this Golden Ratio. This is an indication
that the ratio can be applied to all visual arts such as architecture, paintings, and photog-
raphy.

The possibility of having a revolutionized world after the influence of the Golden
Ratio comes from the discoveries people are making today. Many people have been able
to use the Golden Ratio and apply it to things such as art, music, architecture, and nature.
Le Corbusier, a Swiss-French painter and architect, came up with his own "harmonic
measure to the human scale" that is "universally applicable to architecture and mechan-
ics." Another contributor is Marquardt, a Southern Californian plastic surgeon, who dis-
covered what he calls the "Golden Mask". This mask is generated using the Golden Ratio
to structure the "perfect" and "most visually pleasing" human face. After applying the
Golden Ratio to "uglier" faces, Marquardt realized that those faces match his Golden
Mask more than he had expected. This gave him the impression that if society viewed
their people beautiful using the Golden Mask, there would be more beautiful people in
the world than there are today. This would affect the many social lives and better develop
the way our society perceives beauty. Instead of having so many young women suffer
from eating disorders because they want to be like the thin girls on TV, we could promote
a different view of beauty and stop the unnecessary sufferings. The Golden Ratio would
influence our society by reducing the harmful impacts created from the media, and help-
ing people to realize true beauty.

In relation to nature, the Golden Ratio can be related to the way leaves grow on a
stem. There is actually a pattern involved in the growth of plants and flowers. “Phyllo-
taxis is the distribution or arrangement of leaves on a stem and the mechanisms that gov-
ern it. The term is used by botanists and mathematicians to describe the repetitive ar-
rangement of more than just leaves; petals, seeds, florets, and branches (sometimes) also
qualify. These arrangements are closely related to the well-known and previously men-
tioned Fibonacci numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, …" (Adam, 216). This goes
back to the numbers from the famous sequence. The way leaves are arranged on a stem of
a plant or flower in a variety of different angles or fractions of a circle’s revolution. These
discoveries allow us to give explanations for things that used to be just random numbers.
This helps our understanding of life sciences.
 The irrational number 1.618 was an introduction to irrational numbers for Pythgo-
reans. "The realization that there exist numbers, like the Golden Ratio, that go on forever
without displaying any repetition or pattern caused a true philosophical crisis. (Livio,
Mario)" As much as the discovery of irrational numbers surprised the Pythagoreans back
in the B.C.s, the relevancy of the Golden Ratio to many things in our lives surprises us
today. The Pythagoreans were very confident in their generalization that numbers can
only be whole, or defined by a fraction, but when they came upon Phi, their whole theory
became faulty. When the Golden Ratio's true connections to our world is revealed, we are
most likely going to be like the Pythagoreans and have the need for a revolution where
most of our laws and theories will have to be redefined. The fact that the Golden Ratio
uncovers so many new discoveries in our world makes it possible for it to revolutionize
our world in the future. When we take all the new information we've gained and apply it
in our lives by coming up with new methods for what we do, our world will change. In
the same way the Renaissance artists used the Golden Ratio to revolutionize art, we can
revolutionize our world by using the ratio in the same way, applying it to other parts of
our lives. Having a connection to natural growth, human emotion, proportional beauty,
the Golden Ratio will lead us to discover and apply new knowledge to our lives today and
revolutionize the world.