The Golden Ratio

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How Does The Golden Ratio Relate To Biological Structures And Natural Processes? Michael J. Chobanian The patterns of seeds on a sunflower and spirals of a pine cone are directly related to a term known as the golden ratio. Euclid, the father of Greek geometry, defined this number in his famous work on number theory and geometry, the book “Elements”. From geometry, Euclid’s number emerges accordingly: 1) Given a perfect square of side length 1, use a compass and bisect the base, 2) from the bisection, draw a line perpendicular to the opposite side, 3) and now draw a diagonal from the bisection to an opposite corner, 4) striking an arc from the corner down toward the base, 5) and extend the original base to intersect the arc 6) finally construct a line perpendicular from the intersection and complete the rectangle. The finished product should look like this> Ratio of base to height= (1+ srt5)/2 = 1.61803… The shape is now that of a rectangle, and by algebra, the length of the arc yields square root 5. Wasler, (2001) , defines the golden ratio as “ a line segment that is divided into the ratio of the larger segment being related to the smaller segment exactly as the whole segment is related to the larger segment” (Fett,2006) Setting up the proportion (x+1)/1 = x/1 and cross multiplying yields x^2-x-1 and by the quadratic equation results in the positive length of (1+ srt5) / 2. As the ratio is a irrational number, the approximation is then 1.61803… ; the golden ratio. Mathematicians have named the ratio phi (for the Greek letter phi). The florets of a sunflower and the spirals of a pine cone can both be used as examples to exemplify the golden ratio. The

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