Do you know that symbol? Its the greek letter Phi, and it mathematics its the "golden mean" or divine ratio, or golden ratio. And it has to do with pretty much everything that involves life as we know it.
Ever wonder why seeds of sunflowers arrange in such a unique pattern?, also called "Phyllotactic spirals"?
How about when spiral galaxies form? What is this driving force behind all of life? One may not know, but one may quantify it.
The fibbonacci sequence is always referenced to when thinking of the "golden ratio" or "golden mean" or "Φ", but this isn't entirely correct. I was even under the assumption that they were interchangeable, although closely related, they are not the exact same.
As it stands, all mathmatical sequences need 3 numbers to be a sequence, but Φ does not, it only needs 2, although that might not mean much to you, it means a lot in mathmatics.
So lets try and break that down. If the ratio of the two numbers are the same as the ratio of the sums of the two numbers, then they are in divine proportion. that ratio, when having two complementing numbers, is 1.618
From greek architecture, to classic paintings, to the patterns in nature, we seem to hold some sort of effigy towards this ratio..
The fibbonacci sequence, on the other hand needs 3 numbers to be found.
1+1=2 1+2=3 2+3=5 3+5=8 5+8=13 8+13=21 and so forth
So, dividing each number by the previous number gives: 1 / 1 = 1, 2 / 1 = 2, 3 / 2 = 1.5, and so on up to 144 / 89 = 1.6179…. The resulting sequence is:
1, 2, 1.5, 1.666..., 1.6, 1.625, 1.615…, 1.619…, 1.6176…, 1.6181…, 1.6179…
But do you notice anything about those numbers? Perhaps the fact that they keep oscillating around and getting tantalizingly closer and closer to 1.618?— the golden ratio!
What do these numbers mean? Why do they litterally show themselves in almost every way possible? That is the one question philosophers and scientists alike can't answer.
So hopefully I was able to shed some light on this divine matter for my fellow steemers.
Until next time!