Golden ratio discovered in uterus

Belgian gynaecologist measures reproductive organs of 5,000 women and finds that the most fertile have 'mathematically perfect' dimensions
Normal uterus in the female reproductive system
The study suggests that when women are at their most fertile, between 16 and 20, the proportions of their uteruses reflect the golden ratio. Photograph: Alamy

The golden ratio is a scientific nugget that has, for at least two thousand years, belonged as much to mysticism as to mathematics.





Even though I am sceptical about many of these claims, it is undeniable that 1.618 can be found quite easily on the human form – even on ugly people.

For example, if you mark the tips of the knuckles on your finger with a pen, the distance between first and second knuckle is about 1.618 times the distance between the second and the third.

Finger divided by golden ratio
Pure gold: my finger has divine proportion

The reason I can say this is because I have tried it out using a "golden claw", a pair of three-pronged callipers that always open such that the ratio between the prongs is 1.618.

All the claims about the golden ratio in humans come from considering our exteriors, which is why recently I was fascinated to hear from Jasper Verguts, a gynaecologist at the University Hospital Leuven in Belgium, who has tried to find out if the ratio also appears internally.

Dr Verguts told me that gynaecologists can instantly tell whether a uterus looks normal or not based on its relative dimensions, and his hunch was that these dimensions approximated the golden ratio.




Interest in the golden ratio would have no scientific value were it not for the fact that the number has bona fide mathematical credentials.

The ratio was not plucked from thin air. It arises from the Fibonacci sequence, the sequence of numbers starting 0,1 such that every term is the sum of the previous two:




Looking for the golden ratio in nature, in fact, is a hobby for many.

And none more so than the celebrated recreational mathematician Caspar Schwabe, who has gone one better than the traditional three-pronged "golden claw" and made a four-pronged one.

Four-pronged golden ratio gauge
Fab four: Schwabe's golden ratio gauge

It's for external use only.

This article was amended on 14 August 2012. The original described Jasper Verguts as a Dutch gynaecologist. This has been corrected