Throughout history, thinkers from mathematicians to theologians have pondered the
mysterious relationship between numbers and the nature of reality. In this fascinating
book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or
1.6180339887…This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as The Golden
Ratio, was discovered by Euclid more than two thousand years ago because of its
crucial role in the construction of the pentagram, to which magical properties had
been attributed. Since then it has shown a propensity to appear in the most astonishing
variety of places, from mollusk shells, sunflower florets, and rose petals to the
shape of the galaxy. Psychological studies have investigated whether the Golden Ratio
is the most aesthetically pleasing proportion extant, and it has been asserted that
the creators of the Pyramids and the Parthenon employed it. It is believed to feature
in works of art from Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to Salvador Dali’s The Sacrament
of the Last Supper, and poets and composers have used it in their works. It has even
been found to be connected to the behavior of the stock market!

The Golden Ratio is a captivating journey through art and architecture, botany and biology, physics
and mathematics. It tells the human story of numerous phi-fixated individuals, including
the followers of Pythagoras who believed that this proportion revealed the hand of
God; astronomer Johannes Kepler, who saw phi as the greatest treasure of geometry;
such Renaissance thinkers as mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa; and such masters
of the modern world as Goethe, Cezanne, Bartok, and physicist Roger Penrose. Wherever
his quest for the meaning of phi takes him, Mario Livio reveals the world as a place
where order, beauty, and eternal mystery will always coexist.