golden ratio
golden ratio
Numerical proportion considered to be an aesthetic ideal in classical design. It refers to the ratio of the base to the height of a rectangle or to the division of a line segment into two in such a way that the ratio of the shorter part to the longer is equal to that of the longer to the whole. It works out to about 1.61803:1. A rectangle constructed from golden sections (segments in this ratio) is called a golden rectangle.
This entry comes from Encyclopædia Britannica Concise.
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