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Celerity

(50,954 posts)
Wed Jul 16, 2025, 03:15 PM Wednesday

Spiral into the 'golden ratio' - and separate the myths from the maths



https://aeon.co/videos/spiral-into-the-golden-ratio-and-separate-the-myths-from-the-maths

Named for the Italian mathematician Leonardo Bonacci (c1170-1240), the Fibonacci sequence refers to a numerical set that, usually starting with zero and one, adds the previous two integers together to arrive at the next (0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc). Play this sequence out long enough and the ratio of one number to the next will grow ever closer to 1.618 – or what’s often called the golden ratio.

As this short animation explores, over the centuries this sequence has been imbued with an almost mystical quality, purported to appear almost everywhere one looks in nature, underpinning some of the world’s most famous works of art, and naturally attractive to the human eye. Recently, this has even included smartphone apps claiming that the ratio holds the key to ideal facial proportions. Providing a brief history of the golden ratio, this piece separates the Fibonacci facts from the Fibonacci fibs, while making the argument that, even when demystified, there’s still something rather wondrous to the mathematics of it all.

Video by the Royal Society, BBC Ideas

Animator: Oliver Smyth

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mitch96

(15,336 posts)
2. This stuff always fascinated me..Thanks!! .. So posed the question, if someone uses the Fibonacci principal
Wed Jul 16, 2025, 07:03 PM
Wednesday

to prove something and it's not true.....
Would they be telling a "Fib"???
...
...
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Sorry I could not help my self...
m

valleyrogue

(2,218 posts)
4. The "golden ratio" or "symmetry" re "beauty" has always been a load of nonsense.
Wed Jul 16, 2025, 08:58 PM
Wednesday

One can have symmetrical features and be homely. One can have less than symmetrical facial features and be "beautiful."

One cannot rely on actresses or models as examples of "symmetry" or "golden ratio." They are heavily made up, expertly lit, and expertly photographed. Case in point, Hedy Lamarr, who really wasn't all that naturally. She was made up to look like a goddess but wasn't any kind of natural beauty. Another one is Haile Berry, who is shockingly plain without all the makeup and lighting. I was floored at her rather homely features.

Bone structure is more important in facial "attractiveness" than some contrived mathematical formula.

Besides purporting such nonsense comes awfully close to the crackpot evo psych.

Celerity

(50,954 posts)
5. You do realise that the video debunks the golden ratio in regards to the claims about it that you take issue with?
Wed Jul 16, 2025, 09:36 PM
Wednesday
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