Most of us know that pie are square, especially if you use a square pie pan. Oh! No, no….sorry, wrong pie. I know you’ve heard of Pi, the irrational number equal to the circumference of a circle to the diameter of the circle. Pi = 3.14159265358979323846… The trailing numbers go on forever.
That’s not the same as Phi, another irrational number equal to 1.61803399… What’s interesting about these numbers is how often they pop up in the universe and the world we humans perceive. Now, Pi is a little easier to get your head around because we all know what a circle is and its diameter. But Phi is a little phunnier. So rather that go into where Phi comes from mathematically, you can read all about in Wikipedia. One way to estimate Phi is the Fibonacci sequence. The easiest way to describe this sequence of numbers is this: the number following the number before it is the sum of the two preceding numbers. So it looks like this:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, and so on forever.
If you move into the sequence past the first few numbers and divide any of these numbers by the one preceding it, guess what you get? Phi. It’s actually only a close approximation after all because Phi is irrational. But the further you go in the sequence the more accurate it gets. To wit, 6765 divided by 4181 = 1.618033963… That’s accurate to the 7th decimal.
“Big whoop”, you say. This is just a bunch of boring math stuff. But consider this, the curve of the human ear is the same as the as the Fibonacci spiral. The proportions of the body segments of ants, the body features of an angel fish, the human body, the arrangement of leaves on their stem. There are too many examples to mention here.
If you’ve never heard of the Golden Ratio, Phi, or the Fibonacci Sequence, you really should check them out. They are the basis of many great designs that have been created throughout history by architects, artists, and musicians, and the Creator of the Universe. There are as many ways to apply Phi to a design project as you can imagine and use it to produce just about anything pleasing to the human senses. Just don’t blog about it when you’re hungry.
Further reading and listening:
Debussy’s “Reflections in Water” performed by Yukino Kano
