The Golden Ratio
One wouldn't think of a simple rectangle as necessarily pleasing to the eye. But one rectangle has, throughout history, formed the basis of not only art, sculpture, and architecture, but the proportions of plants, flowers, DNA, and even the human face and body. It is the rectangle formed by the golden ratio, which the Egyptians called the "sacred ratio" and is also known as the divine proportion, wherein the ratio of the length to the width equals 1.618 (a number called Phi). For thousands of years, that ratio was the aesthetic guide in art and building. It creates structures and compositions that are considered the most wonderful to look at because the human eye perceives the golden rectangle as a particularly pleasing geometric form. It is the marriage of mathematics and beauty.
Many creations by artists, musicians and architects have been shaped both knowingly and unknowingly by the golden ratio. The Greeks and Romans used the golden ratio extensively in their creation of temples, which in turn inspired later people to do likewise. Painters, including Leonardo Da Vinci and composers like Mozart and Beethoven utilized the golden ratio in their work. Modern artists and architects use the golden rectangle as well, and example being the United Nations building in New York City. In nature, the golden ratio ensures survival in plants and animals. Most leafed plants space their foliage in proportions that correspond to the golden ratio in order to ensure that every leaf gets light. The pattern in spiral shells, which are some of the most beautiful things in nature, is also based on the ratio. Even viruses are shaped according to the ratio.
Designer Le Corbusier believed that the human soul was unconsciously comforted by mathematics and the ancient Greeks said that all beauty was indeed math. Because the proportions given by the golden ratio are natural and often unconsciously used, it can seem unimportant. But an understanding of the ratio can open the doors to a more profound understanding of what lies beneath aesthetic appreciation.
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