phi - the perfect proportion

Phi has been called nature’s blueprint for life and it is the functioning technology behind energyDOTs.  Also known as The Golden Number, Golden Mean or Divine Proportion phi is, one of those mysterious natural numbers, like pi, that seems to arise out of the basic structure of our cosmos.  Unlike those abstract numbers, however, phi appears clearly and regularly in the realm of things that grow and unfold in steps, and that includes living things. The decimal representation of phi is 1.6180339887499.

It was first observed in Ancient Greece that there was a ratio common in the natural world that made things appealing to the eye; the ratio is 1:1.618.  Considered to be the 'perfect proportion', it is seen in living and non-living entities throughout the universe; it is what creates beauty.

It appears in the unfurling shape of a human embryo, the physical proportions of the human body and our DNA. A botanist finds it in the growth patterns of flowers and plants, while the zoologist sees it in the breeding of rabbits. Phi is seen in the spiral of a nautilus shell, seeds in a sunflower, a tornado and the spiral of galaxies.

It has been observed and used by mankind for centuries. Phi appears in art, architecture, music, advertising, even in the rise and fall of the stock market. From the novel The Golden Ratio written by Astrophysicist Mario Livio, "What do the delightful petal arrangement in a red rose, Salvador Dali's famous painting 'Sacrament of the Last Supper', the magnificent spiral shells of molluscs, and the breeding habits of rabbits all have in common? Hard to believe, but these very disparate examples do have in common a certain number or geometrical proportion known since antiquity."


Divide a line so that:

The ratio of the length of the entire line (A) to the length of larger line segment (B) is the same as the ratio of the length of the larger line segment (B) to the length of the smaller line segment (C).

This happens only at the point where:

A is 1.618 ... times B and B is 1.618 ... times C

Each succeeding finger bone is 1.618 the length of the preceding finger bone.  The distance from elbow to wrist is 1.618 and the distance from wrist to fingertip.

Phi seems to be a geometrical blueprint for life itself and the principle of Phi is used in the specific programme for each DOT.

phi - famous quotes

"The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself."
Leonardo da Vinci

"To the sculptors of classical Greece and Rome, the Divine Proportion was recognized as ideal for the human anatomy."
Bulent Atalay, Math and The Mona Lisa

"All beauty is mathematics"
Ancient Greeks

"(The use of the Divine Proportion)... seem(s) to be incorporated into works of art inadvertently, as a product of the artist's aesthetic intuition. However..., in the case of Leonardo, they are employed after experimentation and applied with full premeditation."
Bulent Atalay, Math and The Mona Lisa

"Math-buffs and math-phobes alike can celebrate the (Divine Proportion's) wonder…you will never again look at a pyramid, pinecone, or Picasso in the same light."
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code


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