Last night I was reading in The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secretabout the golden section. Imagine a line segment (C), split into 2 unequal parts (A & B), such that A/B = B/C. Next assume that B=1. So how do we determine what A and C are? Follow below:
I have Gambit Scheme (programming language) on my cellphone and not only can it do calculations but it can send them to my e-mail!
So here are the solutions and code:
Gambit v4.6.1
(/ (+ -1 (expt 5 .5)) 2)
.6180339887498949
(/ (- -1 (expt 5 .5)) 2)
-1.618033988749895
The main solution for A is .6180339887498949, and because B = 1, then C = 1.6180339887498949
Many thanks to Scott Olsen author of The Golden Secret, Marc Feeley (main author of Gambit Scheme), Keith Flower (for porting of Gambit to the Android OS), Google (for helping me to remember/find the solution to a quadratic equation and providing picture-capable Gmail), Microsoft (for making Word handle equations) and my math teachers for a stroll down memory lane and a most interesting adventure for today.
Steve