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Throughout history, thinkers from mathematicians to theologians have pondered the mysterious relationship between numbers and the nature of reality. In this fascinating book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or 1.6180339887...This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio," was discovered by Euclid more than two thousand years ago because of its crucial role in the construction of the pentagram, to which magical properties had been attributed. Since then it has shown a propensity to appear in the most astonishing variety of places, from mollusk shells, sunflower florets, and rose petals to the shape of the galaxy. Psychological studies have investigated whether the Golden Ratio is the most aesthetically pleasing proportion extant, and it has been asserted that the creators of the Pyramids and the Parthenon employed it. It is believed to feature in works of art from Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa to Salvador Dali's The Sacrament of the Last Supper, and poets and composers have used it in their works. It has even been found to be connected to the behavior of the stock market!The Golden Ratio is a captivating journey through art and architecture, botany and biology, physics and mathematics. It tells the human story of numerous phi-fixated individuals, including the followers of Pythagoras who believed that this proportion revealed the hand of God; astronomer Johannes Kepler, who saw phi as the greatest treasure of geometry; such Renaissance thinkers as mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa; and such masters of the modern world as Goethe, Cezanne, Bartok, and physicist Roger Penrose. Wherever his quest for the meaning of phi takes him, Mario Livio reveals the world as a place where order, beauty, and eternal mystery will always coexist.From the Hardcover edition.
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Previews available in: Italian Chinese English
Showing 6 featured editions. View all 12 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
La sezione aurea: storia di un numero e di un mistero che dura da tremila anni
2010, Rizzoli
in Italian
- 6. ed.
8817016357 9788817016353
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2
Z de gu shi: jie du huang jin bi li
2004, Changchun chu ban she
in Chinese
- Di 2 ban
7806645888 9787806645888
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3
The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number
September 23, 2003, Broadway
Paperback
in English
0767908163 9780767908160
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4
The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number
October 29, 2002, Broadway
Hardcover
in English
- 1st edition
0767908155 9780767908153
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5
The golden ratio: the story of phi, the world's most astonishing number
2002, Broadway Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0767908155 9780767908153
|
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6
The golden ratio: the story of phi, the world's most astonishing number
2002, Broadway Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0767908155 9780767908153
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Book Details
First Sentence
"The famous British physicist Lord Kelvin (William Thomson; 1824-1907), after whom the degrees in the absolute temperature scale are named, once said in a lecture: "When you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind.""
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- Created April 29, 2008
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