The Golden Proportion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Golden Proportion - Essay Example Most commonly, golden triangles and golden rectangles are used. A shape qualifies as â€Å"golden† when the ratio of longest side to shortest side equals 1.61803399†¦ Regular pentagons and pentagrams are also closely associated with the Golden Ratio. When a regular pentagon is constructed and the interior angles are connected with straight lines, the result is a series of triangles, each one of them golden, that form the image of a pentagram. This symbol, a pentagram transcribed by a regular pentagon became significant to the Pythagoreans. This group of people, led by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras played an important role in the early history of the Golden Ratio. Throughout history, the Golden Ratio has been known by many different names. It has been called the golden section, golden mean, symbolized by the Greek letter phi (ÃŽ ¦), the divine proportion, and the mean of Phidias. Some of these names solidly link the origins of the Golden Ratio with the ancient Greeks. In ancient Greece, many famous mathematicians and artists are associated with the use and development of our current understanding of the Golden Ratio. These groundbreaking individuals were interested in the Golden Ratio for different reasons. Some were intrigued simply by the unique mathematical properties of this peculiar ratio, while others sought to utilize the aesthetic strengths of the ratio when developing their art and architecture. A notable mathematician and mystic that had great influence on the discovery and utilization of the Golden Ratio was Pythagoras. The personal history of Pythagoras is colorful and full of legends. None of his actual writings have survived, so it is impossible to tell which mathematical concepts he personally discovered. Pythagoras is most famous for the discovery of the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras (or one of his followers) discovered that the square of the