The Golden Section

Yesterday I was re-introduced to ‘The Golden Section’. Whenever i’ve looked at it in the past it’s always bemused me so I never really took on board what it was all about. It’s actually quite simple once you do “get it”.

Basically The Golden Section is based on a rectangle, the sides of which are in the proportion of 1: Φ. If you divide a rectangle so that one of the parts is a square, the other part will be another golden section rectangle. And if you divide that rectangle in the same way so one of its parts is a square the other part will be another golden section rectangle. For all practical purposes you can keep doing this division until things are so small you can’t see them. From a mathematical perspective you can do this forever. Doing it 5 times will result in something like this:

Now you discover the secret ratio, you will see clearly how the nautilus spiral fits in.

There are some brilliant examples of this spiral in nature too:

• golden mean
• golden rectangle
• golden section