Good stories, pity they're not true

• Published in 2004
• Added on 2012-02-08

The enormous success of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code has introduced the famous Golden Ratio (henceforth GR) to a whole new audience. Regular readers of this column will surely be familiar with the story. The ancient Greeks believed that there is a rectangle that the human eye finds the most pleasing, and that its aspect ratio is the positive root of the quadratic equation \(x^2 – x – 1 = 0\).

Links

• https://profkeithdevlin.org/devlins-angle/2004-posts/#jun04

Other information

BibTeX entry

@article{Devlin,
	key = {Devlin},
	type = {article},
	title = {Good stories, pity they're not true},
	author = {Devlin, Keith},
	abstract = {The enormous success of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code has introduced the famous Golden Ratio (henceforth GR) to a whole new audience. Regular readers of this column will surely be familiar with the story. The ancient Greeks believed that there is a rectangle that the human eye finds the most pleasing, and that its aspect ratio is the positive root of the quadratic equation \(x^2 – x – 1 = 0\).},
	comment = {},
	date_added = {2012-02-08},
	date_published = {2004-12-07},
	urls = {https://profkeithdevlin.org/devlins-angle/2004-posts/{\#}jun04},
	collections = {attention-grabbing-titles,drama,history},
	url = {https://profkeithdevlin.org/devlins-angle/2004-posts/{\#}jun04},
	urldate = {2012-02-08},
	year = 2004
}