Properties of the Golden Ratio

For centuries people have associated

p certain aesthetic
properties to the number
= 1+2 5 (pictures). Well
see some other occurrences of this number in natural
processes. As a start, the seeds in a pine cone, echinacea
ower and sunower all lie in pairs of spirals with opposite
orientation

http://farm2.static.ickr.com/1278/694780262_8874b4f225.jpg
The numbers of spirals in each direction are successive Fibonacci numbers (whose ratios have as limiting value the
number ): But theres more.

A rectangle is called a golden rectangle if the ratio of the

lengths of its sides is equal to ; the golden ratio

Since a > b; the largest square we could cut o from our

golden rectangle is a b b square:

Well see that the remaining b (a

rectangle is also golden, in other words that a b b =

b)

Here is another instance of writing something simple,

namely a b b ; in a complicated way and extracting useful information. Remember that our a
golden, so ab =

and also that

b triangle is

solved the equation

1= 1

b
a

= (

b
a
1

1
) 1b
b b

= a b
b

= a

1
1

1
1

which is the reciprocal of 1 ; so nothing more than

itself.

Now we can repeat this process as many times as we

wish:

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/images/GoldenSectionD.jpg

Another geometric construction we can make is to join

the corners of the squares we cut o with circular arcs:

The resulting spiral is closely approximated by the nautilus shell http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/les/2008/07

spiral.jpg

What
=
p sort of number is ? Once again recall that
1+ 5 and also that
is a limiting value of a sequence
2
of rational numbers, namely the ration of the successive
f

Fibonacci numbers n+1

fn : But is

itself a rational num-

ber? Can it be represented as a ratio of positive integers

a?
b

Notice that

has such a representation if and only if

5 has such a representation:

p

1+ 5
a
=
2
b
p
2a
1+ 5 =
b
p
2a
5 =
b
2a
=
which is again a ratio of integers.

1
b
b

Similarly,
p
p

5 =

p
q

p
1+ 5 = 1+
q
q+p
=
q
p
1+ 5
q+p
=
:
2
2q

Well see that there is no such representation for either

p
or 5: i.e. even though is a limiting value of rational
numbers it is irrational.

Look at the rst line: If it were possible to write 5 = pq

p
with p and q positive integers, then q 5 = p an integer.
p
Call the positive integer q "unusual" if q 5 is an integer.

Proposition 1. 5 is a rational number if and only if an

unusual integer exists.

In fact an unusual integer is too unusual to exist. To see

this consider the following. First of all, because 4 < 5 <
9; we have
p
2 <
5<3
p
5 2<1
0 <
p

Proposition 2. If q is unusual, then so is q ( 5

2):

Proof.
p

p p
p
q ( 5 2) 5 = q 5 5 q 5
p
= 5q q 5
p
which is positive because and q and 5 are positive and
p
p
5q > 5q: But 5q and 5q are integers because q is an
unusual integer, so their dierent is an integer.

Here is an easy but important fact about integers: There

are only 9 positive integers less than 10. There are
only 44 positive integers less than 45. There are only
999,999,999 positive integers less than 100,000,000,000.
If q is a positive integer then there are only q 1 positive
integers less than q; in particular there are only nitely
many positive integers less than any given integer.
Theorem 1. There are no unusual integers, i.e. the set
of unusual integers is empty.
p
Corollary 1. 5 is irrational.
p

Proof. Since 0 < 5 2 < 1; we have, for any positive

number a
p
p
p
2
a > a( 5 2) > a( 5 2) > a( 5 2)3 : : :
which is an innite strictly decreasing sequence of positive
numbers. If we start with a = q; our supposed unusual
integer, then by Proposition 2, all the rest of them also
are positive integers. But there is no innite strictly
decreasing sequence of positive integers, so there is no
unusual integer.

Decimal Expansions and Rational

Numbers