Golden Mean: Post 3

Golden Mean, Golden Rectangle, Golden Spiral:

Golden Rectangle

Photo by Reilly B.

Original Post by Sophia Darby: "Similar to the Parthenon in Greece, the architecture of the Wheaton Library is an expression of the golden ratio. The perimeter of the rectangle is measured from the horizontal line at the top of the stairs and vertically up past the length of a column to the top of the building. A ratio of 1 to 1.618 represent the height and width of the rectangle. In addition, Fibonacci numbers and the golden mean are often found together. For example, there are 8 columns, and the stairs are split into 3 sections (both numbers found in the Fibonacci sequence)."

While it is difficult to determine the measurements because of the sheer size of this building, the measurements certainly add up when scaled. There are actually 6 columns, not 8 (the framing device of the two extremities of the entrance mirrors their appearance, but they do not stand alone like the others and are not cylindrical). The larger rectangle Sophia refers to is separated into five more digestible rectangles, which does, in fact, align with the Golden Mean because 5 is a Fibonacci number. The width of the larger rectangle is equivalent to the width of three of the smaller rectangles mentioned earlier, and 3 is also a Fibonacci number. 5/3 = 1.666; this is certainly close enough to phi to declare this rectangle a Golden Rectangle.

Original post from Math 125 Blog can be found here