Why didn't I ever learn that in maths? - PHI - 1.618
If I'd looked at this stuff while I was in school you could bet I'd be I'd be a master cryptologist by now.
Phi - the divine ratio.
Ok you know I've been reading The Da Vinci Code and i've picked it all up in there.
Its quite amazing stuff and really I'm not easily won over, but this number or ratio is simply ubiquitous. Heartbeat, DNA, all physical proportions, plants, spirals, art, cosmos.....
Have you all heard of the Fibonacci series? It's a number series where every figure is the sum of the preceding two. It looks like this:
1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34..........
anyway I can't carry on, I'd certainly never finish.
Here's a cute little flash intro to the series.
The fibonacci series is interesting in its own right but if you divide each figure by the preceding number you find that as you move along the series you tend towards a number. That number is Phi - The Divine Proportion.
1/1 = 1,
2/1 = 2,
3/2 = 1·5,
5/3 = 1·666...,
8/5 = 1·6,
13/8 = 1·625,
21/13 = 1·61538...
Carry on for long enough and it will hit 1.618.....
This number is interesting just because it is everywhere, really why would a number just keep popping up like that?
Measure the tip of your finger to your shoulder and divide it by the measuremnt of finger to elbow and you get Phi. This can be repeated with finger joints, facial features and many other physical proportions.
Spirals follow Phi, so that covers snails, sunflower seeds, DNA ....
Saturn's rings and so much more.
Check out this site for a mind boggling description of this numbers power.