Life and the Golden Ratio

“All life is biology.  All biology is physiology.  All physiology is chemistry.  All chemistry is physics.  All physics is math.”

Dr. Stephen Marquardt

The design of life is based on a “Golden Ruler™”

It has long been known that the Golden Section, or Divine Proportion, appears in certain proportions of living organisms.  In 1997, I began to wonder how universal this was and how far it could be applied.  I took a golden section of a line not just once, but many times, to form what I like to call the “golden ruler,” shown as follows:

First, take a line and divide it so that the proportion of (B) to (A) is the same as the proportion of (C) to (B):

Divide the line again and again in the same way:

Combine the segments to create a measuring stick or “Golden Ruler™:”

This appears in the proportions of many life forms:

You can take the process another step further by creating a “Golden Grid,” taking it from one dimension to two dimensions:

This approach can be used to explain the physical proportions of many life forms, but the most beautiful application is found in humans:

It appears that this “golden ruler” is a common, if not universal, metric in the design of living organisms.

Try it on the Do It Yourself page!

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