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You are here: Home / Design/Art / Credit Cards and Golden Ratio Proportions

Credit Cards and Golden Ratio Proportions

May 8, 2012 by Gary Meisner 6 Comments

Credit cards are in the shape of a Golden Rectangle. If you ever need an easily accessible example of a golden rectangle illustrating the proportions of the golden section, all you need do is to pull out a credit card or drivers license.

The shape of credit cards are a golden rectangle based on phi, the golden ratio.

Standard sized credit cards are 54mm by 86mm, creating a ratio of 0.628, less than a millimeter off from a perfect golden ratio or golden section of 0.618, the reciprocal of 1.618.

Filed Under: Design/Art

Comments

  1. Sandeep says

    February 12, 2016 at 1:57 am

    I was looking for the standard size of Credit card. Are you sure the size you have mentioned is correct!!

    Reply
    • Gary B Meisner says

      February 12, 2016 at 8:07 am

      Yes. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_7810. The official US size is 53.98 x 85.60 mm, so the 54×86 stated is correct to within fractions of a millimeter. It’s not exactly a golden ratio, but close enough for making quick very close approximations.

      Reply
  2. Eamonn Cooney says

    June 27, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    The Golden Mean or Ratio appears in mathematics and in nature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

    Reply
    • Gary B Meisner says

      June 30, 2016 at 4:02 am

      See also our articles on mathematics, life and beauty.

      Reply
  3. Michael Ossipoff says

    June 22, 2017 at 2:13 pm

    The above-stated credit-card dimensions differ from the golden ratio by about 2%..

    If the golden ratio were intended, then there wouldn’t be that 2% departure from the golden ratio.

    But the close similarity suggests that maybe that shape is perceived as neither too long nor too short

    Michael Ossipoff

    Reply
    • Gary B Meisner says

      June 22, 2017 at 2:38 pm

      As an update, after this article was first written, ISO standards were released in 2003 that state the dimensions of a credit card to be 85.60 mm x 53.98 mm. These numbers were apparently converted from the English sizes 3 3/8″ x 2 1/8″. The golden ratio of 85.60 is 52.90. So while that is a 2% difference, it’s only a difference of only 1 mm. This is not visibly perceptible, so the credit card still serves as a nice, handy reference for evaluating golden ratio measurements.

      Reply

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