The Geometry of Art and Life Summary and Reviews

The Geometry of Art and Life
by Matila Ghyka

The Geometry of Art and Life
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Book Summary Information

Author: Matila Ghyka
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1977-06-01
ISBN: 0486235424
Number of pages: 174
Publisher: Dover Publications

Book Reviews of The Geometry of Art and Life

Book Review: A good book focused on Phi
Summary: 5 Stars

I'm not a mathematician, but I still found this book to be readable. It is largely focused on the Golden Section (Phi) and related proportions, including Fibonacci numbers, sqrt(Phi), etc. The explanation of how to derive this number is clearly explained in the first few chapters. The following chapters show how Phi is related to most things we see everyday, including architecture, 5-point animals, crystal latticies, art, and music. This book is quite old, so the illustrations seem rather antiquated. Nonetheless, the quantity and clarity of these illustrations are impressive.

The writing was clear, but the concepts were occasionally difficult to understand. The author made mention of "gnomic" growth a number of times without really giving a single clear definition. Also, I felt that a number of the tie-ins between Phi and architecture were a bit of a stretch. Most likely you could overlay any graph over a blueprint and see any proportion you'd want to see. At any rate, this book has gotten me interested in this subject, and I will be looking for more books on Phi.

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