What is it?

Thanks to all the people who replied to my post.

namely...
lastfuture, Peter Punk, bug, Michael Schierl,
Timofei Shatrov, Michael Gallant, Lynn Killingbeck,
Ceejay, and Phillip Newton.

This is a great response for a first post. I believe
i have found a real live news group, and not a snide
remark to be seen.

Some of the mathemaical procedures are fascinating and
have led me to more fully appreciate the relationship
between the "golden section" and the sqrt. of 5, of which
i previously had an inkling but didn't know how they were
related.


As i have previously stated, i am an artist and not a mathematician.
although how can i be one without being the other?  They are
intimately related. Is that a contradiction?. good!

Therefore:  what it is  ...is not equal to...  what it is, is what.

thats my theorem and im sticking to it.

now, what is it?

what it is, is the signature that i use in my e-mails.

it is a ratio, know as the "golden rule", "the golden section",
"the golden mean", "the divine proportion".

it is a ratio that is inherent in all living things. and probably
in things that we would consider not living.

take a spiral for example. The rate at which the spiral increases
is the divine proportion. 1 : 1.6180339

the relationship between the head of a wasp and its body/torso is
the same ratio.

the centre of a sunflower has a spiral design, and sure enough the
same propotion lies within.

And in case we missed it, someone built the pyramids as an
everlasting reminder to us of this very rule, not to mention
other mathematical mysteries that may elevate us to some modicum
of understanding of the eternal divine order of the universe, which 
looks very much like chaos.

The artists in the recent past were well copped on to the importance
of the understanding of this ratio.

They built it into their painting and works of art, which in turn lent 
them (the works)far more power.

An artist with an understanding of the nature of existence will produce 
a work which will inspire in us a sympathy that is in many cases beyond 
our concious mind, but which resonates with a much deeper and intrinsic 
part of ourselves, whose memory is older than time itself.

Therefore it may be considered a great painting. Or its power becomes 
obvious to us.

A stained glass window whose design reflects the golden mean and is 
inherent within it, combined with the bright morning sunlight on a crisp
autumn day, is bound to elicit a change of conciousness, especially
if you are alone in a silent, majestic, cathedral surrounded by echoes
and cloisters. (not that id be there if there was anyone there like!)

Now, how is this rule built into the drawing below?

Go to the bottom left hand corner of the drawing. now take as your 
length of side, the distance between there and the end of the nine.
(you might have to print it off to do this).

With that lenth of side draw a square. then, with a compass place the
point on the bottom left hand corner, and the point of your pencil at
the top right hand corner of the square, draw a portion of a circle 
until it meets the bottom line of the drawing.

And thats how you find the divine proportion of any line or distance,
or tangent, call it what you like.

So the drawing contains, the rule inherently, and not just by virtue of
the mathtematical statement it makes.

I suggest that you will find the golden rule inherent in a lot of the
ascii-art found on this news group.

and the bottom line is.. there are no answers, only questions.

oak3

(pronounced oaktree, because the irish have trouble with their th's}

p.s. can i call this my first ascii-art then?
p.p.s why is the bottom line not on the bottom line?

what?






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       #         1 : 1.6180339              #
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