alt Hacker News> he unfolds the significance of the Golden Ratio, showcasing its spiritual depth and presence within the natural order.
Yikes. The golden ratio has limited significance, nothing to do with spirituality, and little presence in nature [1]. Araujo's pictures look great, but in almost any of them you could replace the golden ratio with 1.6, 1.7, or 1.5, and get something no less beautiful.
The Wikipedia page is fairly good on this, especially the "Disputed observations" section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio#Disputed_observat...
As a mathematician, fetishisation of the golden ratio bugs me.
[1] The main place is spiral arrangements of leaves, petals, etc. Vi Hart explains why (watch all three parts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0
Replies
> As a mathematician, fetishisation of the golden ratio bugs me.
I know, but hear me out: it's a decent hook for teaching people about Geometry, Recursion, and Dynamic Programming.
Araujo seems to relate the golden ratio to the icosahedron, so I wonder if there is something to that??
(Or is it just that the largest rectangle that inscribes a regular hexagon has the same ratio?)
I'm also a mathematician, and it doesn't bug me at all.
> nothing to do with spirituality
It clearly does have a lot to do with spirituality, for many people, as symbol. Much as the cross does for Christans. Neither of these symbols have spiritual meaning to me - a cross is just a cross, a spiral is just a spiral. I don't have much need for spiritual symbolism myself - when I meditate, I rather to focus on a simple sound or light source - but I'd consider it highly egotistical of myself if I was to start judging other people's use of symbols just because they don't understand maths, or whatever.
> fetishisation
I've yet to ever see this word used except to denigrate other people's beliefs, or as an attempt to make the user feel superior. I believe you did both here.
My advice, one mathematician to another: chill and let people have their symbols. Don't expect them to have a deep understanding of mathematics, much as we don't have a deep understanding of their need for spiritual symbolism. Nonetheless we can let each other be, and all get along.
Who knows, perhaps a fascination with this "sacred geometry" as they call it, might be a starting point for someone to have a genuine interest in mathematics.