The Beauty Of A Rectangle

Look around, you see rectangular objects everywhere, for instance, computer screen, laptops, Desks, Books, Newspaper, cell phones, greeting cards, gift wrappers, paintings, calendars, doors, windows, closets, calculators, towels, bed sheets, photographs, color boxes, note books, dining table, mirrors, credit cards and the list goes on and on. Have you ever wondered why so many people have been drawing and building things that are rectangular shaped?

The ancient Greeks discovered that there is a specifically shaped rectangle that is most pleasing to the eye. It is not too thick, not too thin but just right. The rectangle possessing this characteristic is called the “Golden Rectangle”. If you simply draw what you believe to be the most beautiful rectangle, then measure the lengths of each side and finally divide the longest length by the shortest. You’ll probably find the ratio is somewhere around 1.6, which is called the golden ratio, rounded to the nearest tenth.
A golden rectangle is one whose side lengths are in the golden ratio, or approximately 1:1.618.
In the world of mathematics, the numeric value 1.618 is called "phi", named for the Greek sculptor Phidias. He sculpted many things including the bands of sculpture that run above the columns of the Parthenon. The exterior dimensions of the Parthenon in Athens, built in about 440BC, form a perfect golden rectangle.

Besides being “beautiful”, the golden rectangle has an intriguing characteristic. If you draw a golden rectangle and draw a line inside it to divide that rectangle into a square and another smaller rectangle, that small rectangle will amazingly be another golden rectangle. You can do this again with this new golden rectangle and you’ll once again get a square and yet another golden rectangle.

Leonardo Da Vinci called the golden ratio the “divine proportion”. His Mona Lisa has many Golden rectangles throughout the painting. By drawing a rectangle around her face, we can see that it is golden. If we divide that rectangle with a line drawn across her eyes, we get another golden rectangle, meaning that the proportion of her head length to her eyes is golden. There are other golden rectangles that can be drawn on the rest of her body like from her neck to the top of her hands.
Da Vinci created other pieces that were also drawn according to the golden ratio such as The Last Supper, Old Man and the Vitruvian Man.

I conclude with Plato’s quote “The good, of course, is beautiful, and the beautiful never lacks proportion”.

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