Thursday Seminar
Date: 29 September, 2016
Time: 15:30 - 15:31
Venue: Main Building Lecture Room - G1
Coordinator: Prof. Jyotsna Vijapurkar
Topic: The Golden Ratio, the Centre of Mass and Aesthetics,
Speaker: Dr. Praveen Pathak,
Abstract:
The Golden Ratio, represented by the Greek letter phi, is an irrational number close to 1.61. Popularly phi is associated with aesthetics in areas as diverse as geometry, painting and nature. For example Leonardo da Vinci proportioned the Vitruvian man, as well as Mona Lisa's face in the famous painting, as per phi. Unlike pi (=3.14...) or exponential e (=2.71..) there are only scattered occurrences of phi (=1.61...) in the sciences. Recently we have encountered a repeated systematic occurrence of phi while examining the centre of mass of laminar bodies. The concept of centre of mass has been around for centuries but its connection with phi has gone unnoticed. I will discuss these and other interesting and intriguing discoveries connecting this magical number.