The Golden Ratio and Our World Leonardo of Pisa, better known as Fibonacci, was born in Pisa, Italy, about 1175 AD. He was known as the greatest mathematician of the middle ages. Completed in 1202, Fibonacci wrote a book titled Liber abaci on how to do arithmetic in the decimal system. Although it was Fibonacci himself that discovered the sequence of numbers, it was French mathematician, Edouard Lucas who gave the actual name of "Fibonacci numbers" to the series of numbers that was first mentioned by Fibonacci in his book. Since this discovery, it has been shown that Fibonacci numbers can be seen in a variety of things today. He began the sequence with 0,1,… and then calculated each successive number from the sum of the previous two. This sequence of numbers is called the Fibonacci Sequence. The Fibonacci numbers are interesting in that they occur throughout both nature and art. Especially of interest is what occurs when we look at the ratios of successive numbers. The Fibonacci numbers play a significant role in nature and in art and architecture. When you construct a set of rectangles using the sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21,), a design found in nature is revealed: Next, when you construct in each square an arc of a circle with a radius the size of the edge of each respective square (a quarter circle), the organic design, which can be found in a snail shell can be seen: Throughout history the length to width ratio for rectangles was one to 1.61803 39887 49894 84820. This ratio has always been considered most pleasing to the eye. This ratio was named the golden ratio by the Greeks. In the world of mathematics, the numeric value is called "phi", named for the Greek sculptor Phidias. The space between the collumns form golden rectangles. There are golden rectangles throughout this structure which is found in Athens, Greece. He sculpted many things including t...
