Running head: GOLDEN RATIO

Golden Ratio Emily Journey Taft College, Statistics 1510

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Abstract This section is currently in progress.

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The Golden Ratio is one of those topics that ignites debate; the main question focus' on existence in general, the how and the why? For those who believe in the Golden Ratio, also known as Divine Proportion, they believe that a special ratio lies within all things and thus is the reason for existence. The Golden Ratio is an irrational number represented in ratio form is 1:1.618...Just as the number itself holds an innite number of decimal places, so does its applicable uses. Architecture and even works of art are thought to be based upon this ratio as it is thought to be more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Believers of this ratio think that it exists within the human makeup from arms and legs down to eyes and teeth! Another aspect of the Golden Ratio is Fibonacci Numbers, these swirls and spirals are believed to be found in pinecones, owers, and even fruit. In the beginning stages of this project, my initial gut reaction was this is silly; if someone wouldn't have given this proportion such great attention would we even recognize this, could we be more aesthetically drawn to other shapes and sizes. So for me, I feel that this ratio is simply "man-made" and derived and not something that MUST take place in order for me to exist. Method Participants The participants for this particular analysis came in two completely different forms; in regards to the Golden ratio, I chose a random sampling from close family and friends. These human participants were both male and female and covered a vast array of age groups. The

GOLDEN RATIO second set of participants I chose to examine regarding the Fibonacci numbers were a random sampling of pinecones I collected from various locations along freeway ridge. Design Within this analysis, there were a number of different variables. The human participants

themselves are of course independent variables in regards to their gender and age, as well as their overall physical makeup. The pinecones used are also independent variables because no two are the same, and they were also collected from varying locations, meaning that they all didnt come from the same tree. Another factor that had an effect on the pinecones was how "fresh" they were. My sample was gathered from fallen pinecones so the length at which they had been unattached from the tree, I believe created a variable I hadn't given much thought to until I was in the midst of my analysis. Measures/Materials The materials I used for this analysis were a tape measure, for measuring the different lengths of my participants limbs; an array of fallen and gathered pinecones, which I then painted using red and pink paint in order to make the Fibonacci spiral more noticeable. The iPad app, TC Stats was utilized in each case as a means of organizing and computing the data I had collected. Procedure I began this project by heading out on a pinecone gathering mission because through my research, pinecones are supposedly one (of many) naturally occurring items to have a visible Fibonacci spiral; also, I found this route to be a much more affordable option. I chose to start my

GOLDEN RATIO gathering mission on an OHV road, known as "Freeway ridge". I gathered the pinecones at random intervals along the trail and only gathered pinecones that had already fallen off of the

tree. Once my pinecones made it home, I then randomly organized them into three rows of seven and began by labeling them in order numerically. After they were labeled and I went and found whatever paint I had on hand, which happened to be pink and red. With those two colors, I then began painting the naturally occurring spiral pattern within the pinecone(s), alternating the colors as I went. I found it easiest to identify the spiral at the base (where the pinecone had at one point been attached to the tree) so for the most part, that is where I began painting each individual pinecone; I repeated this process for the 21 pinecones gathered. For my human participants, I chose to measure those closest to me, my family and friends. I chose to explore two different ratios (four separate measurements) on each of them individually; the measurements were of their "hand" (tip of middle nger to wrist) and their "forearm" (tip of middle nger to elbow). The second set of measurements I refer to in my analysis as "knee" (foot to kneecap) and "navel" (foot to navel). As I gathered my data from my 19 participants, I kept a hand-written log of their measurements and once I had all of my information I then transferred that into TC Stats for data organization and analysis.

Right: top view of painted pinecone

Left: base view of painted pinecone

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Preliminary Results Preliminarily looking at the data I gathered, it seems to be split down the middle as far as nding the Golden Ratio. For my pinecone data, it is very apparent that there most denitely is specic spiral pattern that encompasses the cone, and it does indeed follow the Fibonacci number sequence; virtually all of the pinecone data falls within the 1.618 guidelines (see right). A glimpse of the summary statistics also conrms the pinecone ndings found above. As you can see, all aspects of the 5-Number summary are shown to represent reasonably close to that "magical" number, 1.618. The data for the human component of this analysis was quite contrary to everything the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Number(s) stand for. As you can see from this set of summary statistics, the 5-Number summary shows that nearly all of the ratios are double; so larger than the anticipated ratio of 1:1.618.

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Rather than displaying a relative frequency distribution table as with the pinecones, this data, can best be shown with a box and whisker plot because there is so much and so many different numbers we are dealing with. This graphical display simply illustrates that most of the data ratios fall above the number two which is obviously a larger number than what we were hoping to nd. If this picture represented the Golden Ratio with more accuracy we would basically want to reverse the positions to allow it to fall within the necessary guidelines.

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Bibliography Narain, D. 2001. The Golden Ratio. Retrieved February 25, 2012. (http://cuip.uchicago.edu/ ~dlnarain/golden/).

GOLDEN RATIO Appendix Pinecone Raw Data:

GOLDEN RATIO Human Participants, Raw Data:

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