A podcast that talks to experts about one thing that is profoundly and perhaps unexpectedly significant and that they will argue should matter to everyone. Your hosts, Sean Johnson Andrews and Madhurima Chakraborty, will need to be convinced. Join us as we talk with informed and passionate people about things that we and you may have missed, asking them, “So what?”
A podcast that talks to experts about one thing that is profoundly and perhaps unexpectedly significant and that they will argue should matter to everyone. Your hosts, Sean Johnson Andrews and Madhurima Chakraborty, will need to be convinced. Join us as we talk with informed and passionate people about things that we and you may have missed, asking them, “So what?”
In this episode, we speak with Chris Shaw, who is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Columbia College Chicago. He wanted to talk about the concept of the golden ratio, which is often used as an index of perfect proportion and symmetry in art, architecture, beauty, and nature. But, given that it applies to few of the things that supposedly exhibit this ideal proportion, Chris argues we probably shouldn’t care about the golden ratio, even as he helps us to understand it.
Show Notes
If you are interested in looking at some external resources, the first thing you should check out is some info/images of the Vitruvian Man, which we discuss at several points, but, of course, can’t show you on the podcast. We also discuss George Markowsky’s 1992 article, “Misconceptions about the Golden Ratio,” which appeared in The College Mathematics Journal. Near the end of the episode, Madhurima also talks a bit about the recent book by Mario Livio, who calls the Golden Ratio “The World’s Most Astonishing Number,” which is an easy claim to make if you aren’t too picky about actual measurements and proportions. But if you are charmed (or at least marginally curious) about the ultimate claim our math expert makes in this episode - that there are a lot of cool numbers related to art and nature - then you should check out the open educational resource that Chris Shaw has just published. Philosophical Geometry: Finding Math in Art and Nature is available for free. Listeners will find chapter four of special importance: and if you want to see the full version of the golden rectangle above, scroll to page 69.
Credits
Cover art: The image for this episode is actually a photo of a wood sculpture created by one of Chris’s students, Mercedes Soria, to represent a golden rectangle. This is hard to tell because we have had to crop it to the size of a square for the purposes of fitting into these podcast platforms. But were you to see the whole creation, it would be one of the select art works that actually adheres to the golden ratio.
Hosts: Madhurima Chakraborty madhurimachakraborty.net, Sean Johnson Andrews breakingculture.substack.com
Show music: composed by Kris Stokes krisstokes.com