Oh, that field of mathematics. Don’t you just love to hate him? However, you must admit that when someone explains something of the beauty of it to you and you understand it, you marvel at how incredible the field really is.
Such is the case of sequences of numbers and in particular of a so-called Fibonacci sequence. For those who don’t know what a sequence is, it’s simply a list of numbers that follow some predefined rule. For example, the sequence 2, 4, 6, 8 is the arithmetic sequence that is defined by the multiples of the number 2. The Fibonacci sequence is the following: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13… Do you see the pattern? Well, wait if you don’t; more importantly, or should I say interesting, could you have ever guessed that this sequence has something to do with sex appeal? Indeed. keep reading
If you couldn’t see the pattern within the Fibonacci sequence, it’s this: Each successive Fibonacci number after the second is obtained by adding the previous two numbers in the sequence. So 3 = 1 + 2, 8 = 3 + 5, etc. Aside from the unusual appearance of these numbers within the kingdoms of nature, such quantities as the number of black and white keys that make up an octave on a standard piano are all Fibonacci numbers, and the number of spirals on the florets on a sunflower head are consecutive Fibonacci numbers; the quotient formed by consecutive numbers in this sequence is getting closer and closer to the golden ratio, and this is approximately 1.618.
Classical artists, musicians and architects have been fascinated by this famous number, which seems to have a sex appeal of its own. The ancient Greek sculptor Phidias, who created and oversees the construction of the Parthenon in Athens, is believed to have used this golden rectangle concept on the façade of this famous architectural feat. Luca Pacioli, one of Da Vinci’s mathematics teachers, aroused great interest in the golden ratio in his work De Divina Proportione. Da Vinci used this work to reinforce his claims that various aspects of the human body incorporated this golden ratio. For example, Da Vinci showed that the human face had proportions in accordance with the golden ratio. To show this, Da Vinci drew golden rectangles on the face of an average human subject. It could be assumed that the more golden rectangles that could be drawn, the more aesthetically pleasing a person’s face would be.
Obviously, good looks are associated with an aesthetically attractive face. According to the propositions of Luca Pacioli and Da Vinci, the more the face adheres to the proportions dictated by the golden ratio, the more aesthetically attractive a person will be. Wow, now math is connected to sex appeal. How strange and curious is this topic! Yes. Sex appeal and mathematics. You have one, you definitely have the other. All these sexy things found inside a sequence of numbers that was probably found by some curious guy who decided to add 1 + 1 to get 2, and then said, hmmm, let’s add 2 + 1 to get 3, and so on. The next thing you know, these numbers are appearing everywhere from the piano keyboard to the face of a sunflower to the sex appeal of the human face. Wow, don’t you love math!