The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret (Wooden Books, 18)

This is one of the very best volumes in the Wooden Books series, which is the best book series I can think of. Of course a text this size on a subject this large is going to be limited in scope, but all the the most important aspects of the golden section are hit upon. If you think you are being ripped off because there are other books on Phi that are much longer, think again - this is quality over quantity. What really impresses are the fine print and the notes in the back, which have a great deal of information and some of the better commentary on the esoteric nature of Plato's work, brief though they are, that I have seen. I like that the author seems to have a passion for this work, which enlivens what is a rather dull subject if handled in the wrong way.

I loved this little book and also bought a copy for my dad, who's read about 5 books on pi and didn't have a clue about phi. There's a saying, "Phi is an H of a lot cooler than pi," and I believe it. This crazy number, the Golden Ratio, is so intertwined throughout the universe, in nature, in mathematics, in everything, that I can't see why my math teachers didn't mention this to me back in high school. The author does a great job at presenting it in small bites to those who haven't seen much on phi before. Plus, I love the little artworks on each page that accompany the lessons. This book probably wouldn't add much for someone already well-versed on phi, but for a moderate or newcomer it's terrific. It's also a perfect bathroom book, since you can immerse yourself for about 300 words and then contemplate that for a day.

One of the most famous and mysterious of numbers is pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. If you know some mathematics and work with logarithms, you know another important constant, e. Less well known is the number phi (the Greek symbol looks like a capital I superimposed on an o); it is in many ways simpler than the other two and is just as interesting. All you have to do is take a line segment of any length, and put a point on the line so that the point divides the line into a big segment and a little one, and so that the little segment is to the big segment as the big segment is to the line you started with. The section you made, and the connected mathematics and art, are described and illustrated in _The Golden Section: Nature's Greatest Secret_ (Walker Books) by Scott Olsen, which ought to get an award for the book with the greatest density of information in the smallest package. It has but 58 small pages, and half of those are taken up with illustrations (which are wonderfully selected ). But if you follow the pages, and have pencil, paper, and a calculator beside you, there are depths here that bigger books never touch. It's not too interesting to put a point directly in the middle of a line. You get equal segments that way, or a ratio of one to one, or 1:1; and if a segment is 1, the whole line you bisected is 2, a ratio of 2:1. Plato knew, though, that that was one point that would divide the whole line into shorter and longer portions so that "the whole to the longer equals the longer to the shorter"; or if shorter is a, longer is b, and the whole is a + b, then a + b is to b as b is to a; in symbols, a + b : b as b : a, or a + b : b : a. The ratio is phi (pronounced "fye"). It's numerical equivalent is 1.6180339... (the ellipsis indicating its never-ending nature). There are plenty of surprising properties of this number, some of which you can find on your calculator. For instance, divide phi into one, and you get 0.6180339..., which is exactly one less than phi itself. If you square phi, you get 2.6180339..., which is exactly one more than phi itself. Phi shows up closely related to the Fibonacci Sequence, a series of numbers that shows up all over nature. Rectangles based on phi show up in architecture and art and even music. "Because of its aesthetic qualities, embodied in its unique ability to relate the parts to the whole," writes Olsen, "golden ratios are used in the design of many modern household items." Credit cards, for instance, are very close to the 8 by 5 Fibonacci approximation of phi. Surely no one ever designed the first credit cards to reflect phi, but the ratio does seem to be inherently attractive. Olsen demonstrates that phi shows up in spirals of DNA, in human proportions, in icosahedrons, and so many other places. His handsome and accessible book is an exercise in an appealing numerology.

The author explain the basic of the Golden Section and the various areas where it can be found in nature, architecture, music, planet movements, geometry, etc. A small book to recall us of the classic that was forgotten in today world. The edition (Kindle) is poor with several small annoyances. Buy the print edition if possible.

Good basic info

This is a beautiful small book, Drawn in all black and white it looks both ancient and modern, a lovely approach to timeless truth! Since it's a small book it doesn't attempt to show a comprehensive collection of how many places The Golden Section shows up. What it does show is very clearly presented. I feel refreshed every time I go through it! I think I cherish it.

58 pages of golden ratio/ golden section “stuff”. Looking for Phi in unexpected places… Nice little book!

Although the book is more of a primer, there are some pages worth the price. I really enjoyed the book as it presented some perspectives I hadn't considered previously.

I purchased this item as part of a set as I was teaching the 'Fibonacci Sequence' to my art class at school. A very good and insightful guide, I would highly recommend the book and indeed, the series of which it belongs.

Libro tascabile in lingua Inglese, dimensioni ridotte, bella stampa per quanto riguarda la copertina e ottime illustrazioni interne, scrittura molto comprensibile

great little book

Brauchbar.

O primeiro livro que comprei, desta coleção era pouco maior que a dimensão A6. Os restantes são mais pequenos. A leitura torna-se um pouco difícil, devido ao tamanho da letra, mas o conteúdo e muito bom. Por isso, valeu a pena.