Beauty

So what is beauty? First let me perhaps surprise you by stating that beauty can be defined numerically:- 1.6180339887.

That is beauty - that is the golden ratio. It was described by the

Pythagorean mathematicians, as they kept seeing this ratio in things

regarded as beautiful, and it was first written down by Euclid, and can be

expressed either as a linear relationship or as a shape, in either case the

ratio is (a+b) is to a as a is to b and is behind the pattern of many shapes

we find pleasing, be it architecture, form, people - all tend to this ratio

when regarded as beautiful, and with that ratio we also expect to find

balance and symmetry. The Parthenon has these ratios, and balance.

People also and if we look at those regarded today as beautiful, then again the ratio applies, as does symmetry, both to the face and body. The head forms a golden rectangle and the mouth and nose are placed at golden sections of the distance between the eyes and the chin, and there are many others present and when we look at the human body then the ratio in the average human body of the distance between the navel and the foot to the height and the ratio of the distance from the top of the head to the fingers to the height is the golden ratio, and again there are many others present. And we find these proportions in art for instance in the Sutherland tapestry of Christ in Glory in Coventry cathedral.