Is Beauty Really in The Eye of The Beholder?

Published by Cebah
November 23, 2009, Category: Human Biology

Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder – or are we predisposed to see what is beautiful simply due to nature itself? Does nature have it’s own code of beauty through mathematics? Some of the most beautiful things are constructed following the rule of the golden ratio, golden rectangle and golden spiral.

Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder – or are we predisposed to see what is beautiful simply due to nature itself? Does nature have it’s own code of beauty through mathematics? Some of the most beautiful things are constructed following the rule of the golden ratio, golden rectangle and golden spiral.

The Golden Ratio

The golden ratio is often denoted by the Greek letter phi (Φ or φ, and is an irrational constant of approximately 1.6180339887. It is exactly equal to (1+√5)/2 ).

In Mathematics you will have a golden ratio if you divide a line into two parts so that:

the longer part divided by the smaller part is also equal to the whole length divided by the longer part.

The Golden Rectangle

A golden rectangle is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio, 1: j (one-to-phi), that is, approximately 1:1.618.

A golden rectangle can be constructed with only a straightedge:

1. Construct a simple square

2. Draw a line from the midpoint of one side of the square to an opposite corner

3. Use that line as the radius to draw an arc that defines the height of the rectangle

4. The result is a golden rectangle

The Golden Spiral

In geometry, a golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor b is related to j, the golden ratio. Specifically, a golden spiral gets wider (or further from its origin) by a factor of j for every quarter turn it makes.

Successive points dividing a golden rectangle into squares lie on a logarithmic spiral This very special spiral (called the logarithmic spiral) is exactly that of the nautilus shell and of certain snails (the planorbe or flat snail).It is also found in the horns of certain goats , and in the shape of certain spider’s webs, as well as the takeoff line of certain colonies of bat.

Other examples of the golden ratio found in nature include all types of crystals, the hexagonal geometry of snowflakes, the pattern of trees and plants to absorb the maximum amount of light, the body and wing spans of birds and flying insects, lightning, rivers, geometric molecular and atomic patterns exhibited in solid metals.