So, I was sitting at work reading the latest Discover me across an article dubbed, "Cracking The Da Vinci Code".

This has to do with what the Greeks considered the "perfect number". The fact that the number appears naturally in nature so often is what inspired the Greeks to find this. The number is supposed to signify perfection and things that are designed around the number are supposed to be the most "aestheticly pleasing". I'm of course talking about the letter phi or Φ.

Φ=1+sqt(5)]/2 (see the attached picture to see this more clearly)
or Φ~1.618...

The lowercase of Φ is φ, it also just so happends that

the negative of Φ (or φ) is =[1-sqrt(5)]/2 or ~-.618

The formula is based off of The Bonacci sequence which is ...
1,1,2,3,5,8,13......
or desribed as
each number after the first two ones are equal to the sum of the previous two numbers eg...
1,1
1+1=2
so we have 1,1,2
1+2=3
so we have 1,1,2,3
2+3=5
so we have 1,1,2,3,5 etc...

Anyway these numbers are seen all around nature.

Anyway, this is supposed to be the greatest number ever
Withstanding the fact that most of the myths surrounding the greatness of Φ have been debunked by scientists, I think it is stiill a pretty cool theme to shape Menuet around. The perfect OS, or The Golden os (Φ is also known as the golden ratio)

I was thinking something similar to MeΦS would be neat. There is also the perfect spiral or a Φ spiral that could be used as the e In MeΦS or Menuet ΦS


The discover article is here... although it costs money to view, I think it was worth the cost of the magazine.
http://www.discover.com/issues/jun-04/features/cracking-the-da-vinci-code/



Anyway, I suggest you all read up on it a little more.
You might try these sites...
http://goldennumber.net/neophite.htm

http://goldennumber.net/phisymbol.htm

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt669/Student.Folders/Frietag.Mark/Homepage/Goldenratio/goldenratio.html

http://www.mathsoft.com/mathresources/constants/wellknown/article/0,,1941,00.html (the spiral in here is what I was talking about for the e, but rotated to look more like an e )

I think you mean the Fibonacci sequence.

NATURALLY a mathematical sequence.

Leaves, seashells even the ratios in the human body follow the sequence.

I remember a guy in the sixties making "golden ratio" music with some wave generators (synthesizers) and such. Was that on reel to reel or vinyl? It wasn't all that "perfect" (musically that is).

BugMeNot (http://bugmenot.com) will let you view the article for free

Wow, this is an old thread. Yeah, the golden ratio is a bit more of a myth than anything


Yeah



Yeah, its just a myth, but Its still pretty interesting I think, and I thought it fit well for this seeing how software is just a bunch of numbers. Implying that it was the "Perfect number" would be saying that it is the perfect software.

Since no one ever responded to this thread (at least for a long time) I just went ahead and made the MenuetWiki logo with this theme.[/url]

Golden ratio is nice for art. But me as a bit more fractal person, I prefer the feigenbaum constants: f_delta = 4.669... and f_alpha = 2.50...