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It does show up in plants (artichokes, cactuses, sunflowers, pineapples, etc.), as the angle between successive leaves/seeds/petals. This is called spiral phyll
by jacobolus 7y ago
It does show up in plants (artichokes, cactuses, sunflowers, pineapples, etc.), as the angle between successive leaves/seeds/petals. This is called spiral phyllotaxis. You can make some cool art out of this idea with a strobe light, https://www.johnedmark.com/phi/ https://www.johnedmark.com/phi/
It also shows up anywhere with pentagonal (or icosahedral) symmetry, since the golden ratio is the ratio of the diagonal to the side of a pentagon. So that includes e.g. various viruses with a shape based on icosahedral symmetry.
The stuff about shells, galaxies, etc. (and the supposed advantages of this specific aspect ratio for design / visual art) is generally bullshit.
- bjornjaja 7y agoDefinitely not bullshit with respect to art—it is used in many aesthetically pleasing and well balanced designs.
- kingbirdy 7y agoBut that doesn't mean the golden ratio is the reason it's aesthetically apealling. There is good art that uses the ratio, and bad art that uses it, and good art that doesn't use it.
- bjornjaja 7y agoAgreed, but it’s recursive nature does make it appealing in ways other ratios do not.
- jacobolus 7y agoThere are many aesthetically pleasing artworks where the subjects wear hats. But that doesn’t mean that there’s some magical feature of hats that produces transcendent art.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoThe creator of the sinebow [1] uses this property to construct color sequences that are maximally distant from each other. You just keep rotating around the circle in steps of phi and it sorts itself out. [1] http://basecase.org/env/on-rainbows http://basecase.org/env/on-rainbows
- jacobolus 7y agoYou might enjoy my doodling at https://observablehq.com/@jrus/categorical https://observablehq.com/@jrus/categorical