The golden ratio : the story of phi, the world's most astonishing number

Book

The golden ratio : the story of phi, the world's most astonishing number / Mario Livio.

Livio, Mario, 1945- (Author).

Summary:

"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."--Goggle Books.

Record details

ISBN: 0767908163
ISBN: 9780767908160
Physical Description: viii, 294 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.
Edition: 1st trade pbk. ed.
Publisher: New York : Broadway Books, 2003.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-277) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Preface -- Prelude to a number -- Pitch and the pentagram -- Under a star-y pointing pyramid? -- Second treasure -- Son of good nature -- Divine proportion -- Painters and poets have equal license -- From the tiles to the heavens -- Is God a mathematician?