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The Golden Ratio: Phi, 1.618

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You are here: Home / Life / Human Hand and Foot

Human Hand and Foot

May 16, 2012 by Gary Meisner 39 Comments

The hand shows Phi and the Fibonacci Series.

There are many examples of the Divine Proportion found throughout the design of the universe and everything in it, but let’s take a look at one of the most important things first: You!   We’ll need a few Golden Section / Fibonacci building blocks:

Successive Golden Sections of a Line based on phi, the golden ratio

Each line is 1.618… times longer than the one before it. (Conversely, a section drawn at 0.618 (or 61.8%) of each line equals the length of the one before it.)

Let’s start with something simple. Take your hand off your keyboard or mouse and look at the proportions of your index finger.

Your finger demonstrates the Fibonacci series of 2, 3, 5, 8

Hold your hand up to the screen. Don’t be shy!

Each section of your index finger, from the tip to the base of the wrist, is larger than the preceding one by about the Fibonacci ratio of 1.618, also fitting the Fibonacci numbers 2, 3, 5 and 8.

By this scale, your fingernail is 1 unit in length.

Curiously enough, you also have 2 hands, each with 5 digits, and your 8 fingers are each comprised of 3 sections.  All Fibonacci numbers!

Here are other ways of expressing the same basic relationship in its connection to the golden ratio and golden spiral:

finger-fibonacci-golden-ratio-proportions

finger-bone-section-golden-spiral

Source: www.creationresearches.com

The ratio of the forearm to hand is Phi

Your hand creates a golden section in relation to your arm, as the ratio of your forearm to your hand is also 1.618, the Divine Proportion.

arm-showing-golden-proportions

Even your feet show phi

The foot has several proportions based on phi lines, including:

  1. The middle of the arch of the foot
  2. The widest part of the foot
  3. The base of the toe line and big toe
  4. The top of the toe line and base of the “index” toe

Note that not every individual has body dimensions in exact phi proportion but averages across populations tend towards phi and phi proportions are perceived as being the most natural or beautiful.

Filed Under: Life

Comments

  1. KingKong75 says

    July 27, 2012 at 10:28 am

    “and your 8 fingers are each comprised of 3 sections”…

    You are wrong, we have 10 fingers. The thumbs also have 3 sections each.

    Reply
    • Dixi says

      November 1, 2012 at 9:16 pm

      Thumb is not technically a finger

      Reply
    • BETHANY says

      November 7, 2012 at 11:59 am

      you are wrong. the thumb doesnt count as a finger.

      Reply
      • Jamieson Steele says

        December 16, 2017 at 10:39 am

        Your Thumb is a Digit, It’s your “Counting Finger” for the “Hand”!
        Both views have been brought together without the “Bias of Allusion”.

        Reply
      • dsds says

        March 10, 2020 at 6:11 am

        WHY NOT?

        Reply
    • James says

      May 11, 2015 at 9:17 am

      The author of this article is referring the phalanges of the hand when classifying the fingers. The fingers attached to metacarpals 2-5 all consist of three phalanges each (proximal/intermediate/distal) while the thumb extends from the 1st metacarpal and consists of only a distal and proximal phalange. Thus, only eight fingers were considered for Fibonacci ratios.

      Reply
    • Brigita Caissa Jupiter says

      May 3, 2017 at 3:33 pm

      Thumbs are Not Fingers. However, we have 10 digits.

      Reply
    • Dhruv Shah says

      June 7, 2017 at 1:53 am

      Exactly, thumb is not counted as finger !!!!!

      Reply
      • Anonymos says

        November 28, 2017 at 5:00 pm

        Yeah that is why the author says that you have says that your 2 hands each have 5 DIGITS, and later, fingers.

        Reply
    • Savanna says

      October 31, 2018 at 10:02 am

      you are right thumbs are fingers

      Reply
    • RHA says

      December 31, 2018 at 6:40 pm

      “we take from the tip distance”

      Reply
    • mardi gras says

      April 26, 2020 at 6:12 pm

      King Kong you are wrong. The thumbs are comprised of two phalanges and one metacarpal. Same goes for the great toe. The 8 fingers are comprised of three phalanges and one metacarpal, and the same for the 8 lesser toes. There is an anatomical difference of the thumbs.

      Reply
  2. MARK SMYTH says

    October 16, 2012 at 1:27 am

    Those people with ten fingers had a curse on them, many of them over the years became pirates. I am not talking about thumbs. It was like God cleared the earth during the great flood of all of those tainted children born of women having sex with the gods of old, as the bible refers to them. In other words, they were aliens. Just like the kind of people you find hanging out in sleezy bars….LOL.

    Reply
    • Zoi says

      December 9, 2015 at 10:54 pm

      Pretty sure those kids were Nephilim. Children born of human and angel.

      Reply
  3. Gary Meisner says

    October 16, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    Not wrong. Just a different viewpoint. Dictionary.com shows the first definition of “finger” as “any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.” Thumbs have three sections beyond the wrist while the other four digits/fingers have four, so the “terminal” section of the thumb has two sections.

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      July 27, 2015 at 5:04 pm

      Oh yes, let’s use Dictionary.com as a respectable source….

      Reply
      • Gary Meisner says

        July 27, 2015 at 7:14 pm

        How about Oxford dictionary, which says “Each of the four slender jointed parts attached to either hand (or five, if the thumb is included)”, or Merriam-Webster, which says” any of the five terminating members of the hand : a digit of the forelimb; especially : one other than the thumb.” The main thrust of all is that finger refers primary to the four fingers, excluding the thumb.

        Reply
  4. NG says

    November 11, 2012 at 12:54 am

    THE ARM THING WORKS
    AMAZING
    EPIC
    AWESOME

    Reply
  5. daniel nacht says

    March 11, 2013 at 2:34 pm

    Maybe I am missing something. Phi is a ratio of two things: hand/forearm, finger digits. Which lines from the foot illustration does one compare?

    Thanks,

    Dan

    Reply
    • Gary Meisner says

      March 14, 2013 at 9:20 pm

      Each of the lines represents a golden ratio of the one that precedes it, which is often how Phi is expressed in life. The first four phi lines fall at the arch, ball and base of the toes.

      Reply
  6. peeves says

    September 1, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    Thumbs do count as fingers and the thumbs only have 2 phalanges each.

    Reply
    • Juli says

      July 23, 2018 at 12:03 am

      To quote Dr. Seuss, “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb.”

      Reply
  7. DR.A.Jagadeesh says

    July 12, 2014 at 8:13 am

    Amazing.
    Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India

    Reply
  8. ali says

    July 28, 2014 at 7:49 am

    I think god creates using phi, its clearly an intelligent design, creating intelligence. If phi was used exactly then we wouldn’t look as we are now with slight differences to distinguish ourselves.

    Reply
    • KR says

      November 30, 2017 at 1:23 pm

      YAS! preach!

      Reply
  9. ali says

    July 28, 2014 at 7:51 am

    intelligent design is organised, chaos design is not.

    Reply
  10. Michael Herndon says

    October 27, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    how do you plot the numbers on an excel spreadsheet for the forearm to hand picture?

    Reply
    • Gary Meisner says

      October 30, 2014 at 9:58 am

      Measure a dimension on the photo and put it in a cell in Excel. Then create a formula in the cell on either side that multiply or divide by 1.6180339887. You can calculate that more precisely by putting this in the cell: =5^0.5*0.5+0.5

      Reply
  11. Alan Striga says

    January 11, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    Trees and fibronicci formula demonstrate lymes growth. Cool

    Reply
  12. sabaistian matus says

    August 8, 2015 at 10:17 am

    Any one interested in exploring golden ratio in relationship to the “ying yang” to create a perfect form which can illustrate that unified field is only 2 forces, not four and this is why no one has balanced these, now if all you want to do is be smart, please dont waste our time, i am seeking, not being right, but looking for a correct way to do a job i have to do…

    Reply
    • Jimmy says

      February 2, 2018 at 3:57 am

      What job is that?

      Reply
  13. sisiphus says

    August 10, 2015 at 10:28 am

    thanks all, enjoy, found my unified field, its true fractal nature… “i think and hope at least…”

    Light is always a particle and a wave form, it does not collapse, but it is hiding by being out of phase by a 45 degree movement and the second 45 degree twist, ….like a bullet it seems to just be a particle, because we can not perceive the particles spin….. wow it was hiding every where in front of me, so apparent I could not see it, I see the equation, now i just need to figure how to use it for my escape door from this twisted feminine world.” good luck to all you tartarus is a amazing trap that makes you the jailer and also the prison!

    Reply
  14. ved bhatt says

    July 15, 2016 at 11:21 pm

    very nice but give nice explanation on foot

    Reply
    • Gary B Meisner says

      July 16, 2016 at 6:32 pm

      The multiple lines on the foot indicate golden ratios of golden ratios. This is a bit like the equal ratios that appear in sea shells, but applied in a linear fashion.

      Reply
  15. Jonathan says

    July 16, 2016 at 10:39 am

    The Phi- or Golden ratio sequence is 1.618033…… and goes on forever, infinite decimals, which means you can not enumerate them. First two pairs of numbers in the sequence is 16 and 18.
    Chapter 16 verse 18.
    And if you should count the favors of Allah , you could not enumerate them. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. 16:18, Sahih International translation, Quran.
    Furthermore, if you take the next three numbers, …033 = 33, and step 33 letters into that same verse, you end up right in the middle of the name Allah.
    In addition to this, if you take chapter 1 which has 7 verses and add the chapter number 1 to the number of verses in that chapter 7, giving you 1+7 = 8. Chapter 2 has 286 verses, giving you 2+286 = 288. Chapter 3 + 200 verses = 203 ….and so on… and then make two groups of these sums, one with all odd sums (203+…+…) and one with all even sums (8+288+…+…). If you now were to compare the ratio of those two groups, you end up with the ratio of phi. 1.618…. I’m not talking about a book from a human… or what do you think?

    Reply
  16. Matt Hammond says

    April 7, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    Really enjoy your website and the PHI relationship to the human hand.
    I have recently launched my own website comparing the origin of Earth:Moon and G.P. ration and their relationship to the human hands.

    Have other interesting reads about PI, Earth and Moon, G.P etc.

    Please check it our and let me know what you think.

    http://www.sum55..com

    Reply
  17. Stephen Sharma says

    February 11, 2018 at 11:50 pm

    Phi is not intelligent design. It is just the fundamental harmonic of a chaotic self similar architecture in nature. Basic forms behave according to the principle of least action and as such follow geodesics or great arcs that naturally conform to simple geometric shapes that have basic resonances. These most fundamental new modes are like the base ten system relating to the ten digits. New human comprehension might equate this ratio with a new way of thinking.

    Reply
    • Gary B Meisner says

      February 12, 2018 at 4:52 am

      True, there are many examples of Phi in nature that represent the simple result of its appearance being the most “efficient” structure based on “least action.” The more interesting question is why Phi appears in some places where it seems to be only for the human perception of beauty, and why humans perceive beauty at all. The many golden ratios that can be found in the proportions of a beautiful face is an example. That is not as easily explained as a self-similar geodesic dome in which all the proportions are identical.

      Reply
  18. KHEAN says

    October 24, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    This is very accurate.

    Reply

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