Month: November 2007

Golden Mean – The Golden Spiral is a mystical shape that is an absolute in both abstract mathematics and chaotic nature. It was first discovered by Pythagoras in the 5th century B.C. The spiral is derived via the golden rectangle, a unique rectangle which has the golden ratio. When squared, it leaves a smaller rectangle behind, which has the same golden ratio as the previous rectangle. The squaring can continue indefinitely with the same result. No other rectangle has this trait. When you connect a curve through the corners of these concentric rectangles, you have formed the golden spiral. This shape can be found everywhere in nature: the Nautilus Shell, Ram’s horns, milk in coffee, the face of a Sunflower, your fingerprints, our DNA, and the shape of the Milky Way.

Leonardo da Vinci understood that Man was intended in the proportion of Phi and indeed much of the natural world was Phi based. In the anatomy of Man, the spinal vertebrae are relative to each other in the Phi ratio. The Nautilus shell spirals in the Phi ratio. Plants and trees grow in the Phi ratio. The Earth and Moon have this same relationship. The sunflower is a wonderful example of the spiraling effect of Phi. Look at a pine cone and find the same relationship of Phi…in two directions at the same time.

Leonardo da Vinci invented the scissors. Leonardo da Vinci invented the first parachute long before man was flying. Despite his great scientific and artistic achievement, Leonardo da Vinci was most proud of his ability to bend iron with his bare hands. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time. Leonardo da Vinci was dyslexic, and he often wrote backwards.

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. — Leonardo da Vinci

Image from MatheMagic

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