Golden Ratio

360... while still interesting, it's still a bit on the slow side. Not suprising, the majority of the students aren't great with math. I was answering a lot of the questions Cyril was asking of the class to the point where he mentioned why I was taking the class if I knew everything...

One thing he talked about was seeing the DaVinci Code. He was talking about rabbits breeding and finding some kind of description of it that was also referenced in DVC: Fibbonacci. Then, going on to solve the difference equation, he came up with the roots of the characteristic equation... (1 +/- sqrt(5))/2, also known as the Golden Ratio.

While I've known about the mathematical aesthetics of the GR for some time, it only then dawned on me how profound it is. It's basically the description of growth and reproduction. It describes life and what should be more beautiful to life than life? Everything from our facial features to the size of our fingers, arms and legs to the distance from our bellybuttons to our head and feet.

There's one dissatisfying assumption though... the difference equation assumes that life does not die, offspring are produced, grow and then add to the cycle. We know this isn't true... so, how can that truly describe growth of any multicelled organism?