Math and Sex Appeal: You Got One, You Got the Other

So you think math isn’t very sexy, heh? Well then you don’t know about the aesthetic appeal of the golden ratio, which has appeared in works of art and nature from eons past. The great Da Vinci even maintained that the human body has proportions which approximate the golden mean. So what is this golden number, and what the heck does it have to do with sex appeal? Read on.

For the non-mathematically inclined, a number is a number is a number. Not so to the mathematician, as such a creature makes several distinctions between the different types and classes of numbers. Indeed, mathematicians naturally classify, quantify, verify and yes unfortunately—mystify. You see in math you have regular counting numbers like 1,2, and 3; then you have fractions like ½, 1/3, and 3/4; then you have negative numbers like -1, -10, and -5; and then you have irrational numbers like sqrt(2), sqrt(3), and pi. (Remember that sqrt means the square root of a number, or that number which when multiplied by itself gives the original number. The sqrt(4) is 2 because 2 x 2 = 4. For numbers like sqrt(2), there is no whole number which multiplies by itself to give 2. Thus sqrt(2) is irrational.)

To mathematicians, there are many special numbers and one that has so captivated them over the years is the golden ratio, or the number expressed as (1 + sqrt(5) )/2. This number, written as a decimal to the nearest thousandths place, is 1.618. From a geometric perspective, this number expresses the ratio between two segments a and b such that the ratio of the total, that is a + b, to the longer, that is a, is equal to the ratio of the longer segment a to the shorter segment b. In other words (a + b)/a = a/b. Whenever this is true, we say the two segments a and b have the golden ratio. The golden rectangle, which has been used by classical architects from time immemorial, has sides which are in this ratio. In other words, a golden rectangle is such that its side lengths are in the proportion of 1.618:1. That is the length of any golden rectangle is a little more than 60% greater than the width.

Artists, musicians, and classical architects have been fascinated with this famous number, which seems to have a sex appeal all of its own. The ancient Greek sculptor Phidias, who created and oversaw the construction of the Parthenon in Athens, is believed to have used this golden rectangle concept in the facade of this famous architectural feat. Luca Pacioli, one of Da Vinci’s mathematics teachers, aroused great interest in the golden number in his work De Divina Proportione. Da Vinci used this work to bolster his claims that various aspects of the human body incorporated this golden number. For example, Da Vinci showed that the human face had proportions in accordance to the golden ratio. In order to show this, Da Vinci traced out golden rectangles on the face of an average human subject. One could suppose, that the more golden rectangles that could be traced out, the more aesthetically pleasing a person's face was.

Obviously good looks are associated with an aesthetically appealing face. According to Luca Pacioli and Da Vinci’s propositions, the more closely one’s face adheres to proportions dictated by the golden ratio, the more aesthetically appealing a person is. Gee, now math is connected to sex appeal. How strange and curious this subject is! Yes. Sex appeal and math. You’ve got one, you’ve definitely got the other.

See more at Joe Pagano and his Curious Math