The Golden Section

The Golden Section, the Golden Rectangle, the Golden Spiral, the Divine Ratio ... these all refer to the relationship between two numbers i.e: a ratio.

Imagine a line from A to B with a point P off-center:

Now, look at the ratio of AP and PB. AP is longer than PB. And if the ratio of AP to PB is the same as the ratio of AB to AP, then that ratio is called the Golden Ratio.

Depending on how your mind works this may or may not take more than a moment to understand. It took me more than a minute to really understand visually what was being said. But when you "get it" its wonderful!

Have a look at the images and explanation again if you have not "got it" yet. No rush, no hurry, no examination, just curiosity!

It is of course a real number, very roughly 1.61803:

Strangely enough this ratio appears in a very popular symbol, the 5 pointed star:

Click on one of the following titles for more details about this golden concept.

Part 2: The Golden Rectangle

Other articles at www.ransen.com

The Gliftic program icon, by the way, is as near as we can get to a Golden Rectangle with so few pixels. And Gliftic will has the Golden Rectangle (both tall and wide versions) as a selectable predefined image size. (Yes, this is a plug!)