What exactly is the golden ratio?
The golden ratio can’t be written exactly as a decimal number, because it is irrational. It is a decimal that continues on and on, without any apparent repetition. The best definition of the golden ratio is it is the only number that when squared is equal to the sum of itself and one. In 1996, a mathematician called Greg Fee programmed his computer to compute the golden ratio to ten million places. It took Greg’s computer approximately 30 minutes to complete. There is an easier way to estimate the golden ratio using the Fibonacci sequence. This is a sequence of numbers where the next term is the sum of the two previous: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 … and so on. If you divide each number in the sequence by the one before, you may notice that the quotient approaches the golden ratio: 1/1 = 1, 2/1 = 2, 3/2 = 1.5, 5/3 = 1.666…, 8/5 = 1.6, 13/8 = 1.625, 21/13 = 1.615… Fibonacci in nature The Fibonacci sequence is often found in nature. The number of petals on a flower is often a
