The Golden Ratio

The Golden Ratio, 1:1.618, is also called the Golden Mean or phi and is found in nature as well as in art. It is one of many fascinating cultural elements that has appeared throughout history all along the Silk Road.

Objects that follow the Golden Ratio are divided into subsections so that ratio of the size of the entire object to the size of largest portion is the same as the ratio of the size of the largest portion to the next largest portion and so on.

Some examples of the Golden Ratio as it occurs in nature are:

• The number of seeds in each concentric row on a sunflower tend to follow the Golden Ratio.
• The spiral of a conch shell is generated by the recursive nests of Golden Triangles (triangles with relative side lengths of 1, phi and phi).

The Golden Ratio has been used in art and culture all along the Silk Road. For example:

• The architects of the Egyptian pyramids and the Parthenon utilized the Golden Ratio.
• An ancient Chinese game called tziansitzi involves picking stones from two piles. They key to winning is picking enough stones so that the ratio between the two piles is the GoldenRatio.

The Silk Road Project Web site pages use Golden Rectangles (rectangles with the relative height to width of 1:1.618). This page is in the shape of a Golden Rectangle. Multiply the height of this window, 290 pixels, by the number 1.618 (from the Golden Ratio) and the product will be the length of the window, 470 pixels.

If you would like to learn more about the Golden Ratio, visit the Golden Ratio page at the ThinkQuest website.