X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,dcf25038a29c6829,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-10-02 14:16:39 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!isdnet!skynet.be!skynet.be!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!diablo.theplanet.net!news.indigo.ie!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3BBA2E1C.7020700@sdf.lonestar.org> From: oak3 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-GB; rv:0.9.2) Gecko/20010726 Netscape6/6.1 X-Accept-Language: en-gb MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art Subject: What is it? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 117 Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 22:14:04 +0100 NNTP-Posting-Host: 159.134.180.34 X-Complaints-To: abuse@eircom.net X-Trace: news.indigo.ie 1002057398 159.134.180.34 (Tue, 02 Oct 2001 22:16:38 BST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 22:16:38 BST Organization: Eircom.Net http://www.eircom.net Xref: archiver1.google.com alt.ascii-art:8276 Thanks to all the people who replied to my post. namely... lastfuture, Peter Punk, bug, Michael Schierl, Timofei Shatrov, Michael Gallant, Lynn Killingbeck, Ceejay, and Phillip Newton. This is a great response for a first post. I believe i have found a real live news group, and not a snide remark to be seen. Some of the mathemaical procedures are fascinating and have led me to more fully appreciate the relationship between the "golden section" and the sqrt. of 5, of which i previously had an inkling but didn't know how they were related. As i have previously stated, i am an artist and not a mathematician. although how can i be one without being the other? They are intimately related. Is that a contradiction?. good! Therefore: what it is ...is not equal to... what it is, is what. thats my theorem and im sticking to it. now, what is it? what it is, is the signature that i use in my e-mails. it is a ratio, know as the "golden rule", "the golden section", "the golden mean", "the divine proportion". it is a ratio that is inherent in all living things. and probably in things that we would consider not living. take a spiral for example. The rate at which the spiral increases is the divine proportion. 1 : 1.6180339 the relationship between the head of a wasp and its body/torso is the same ratio. the centre of a sunflower has a spiral design, and sure enough the same propotion lies within. And in case we missed it, someone built the pyramids as an everlasting reminder to us of this very rule, not to mention other mathematical mysteries that may elevate us to some modicum of understanding of the eternal divine order of the universe, which looks very much like chaos. The artists in the recent past were well copped on to the importance of the understanding of this ratio. They built it into their painting and works of art, which in turn lent them (the works)far more power. An artist with an understanding of the nature of existence will produce a work which will inspire in us a sympathy that is in many cases beyond our concious mind, but which resonates with a much deeper and intrinsic part of ourselves, whose memory is older than time itself. Therefore it may be considered a great painting. Or its power becomes obvious to us. A stained glass window whose design reflects the golden mean and is inherent within it, combined with the bright morning sunlight on a crisp autumn day, is bound to elicit a change of conciousness, especially if you are alone in a silent, majestic, cathedral surrounded by echoes and cloisters. (not that id be there if there was anyone there like!) Now, how is this rule built into the drawing below? Go to the bottom left hand corner of the drawing. now take as your length of side, the distance between there and the end of the nine. (you might have to print it off to do this). With that lenth of side draw a square. then, with a compass place the point on the bottom left hand corner, and the point of your pencil at the top right hand corner of the square, draw a portion of a circle until it meets the bottom line of the drawing. And thats how you find the divine proportion of any line or distance, or tangent, call it what you like. So the drawing contains, the rule inherently, and not just by virtue of the mathtematical statement it makes. I suggest that you will find the golden rule inherent in a lot of the ascii-art found on this news group. and the bottom line is.. there are no answers, only questions. oak3 (pronounced oaktree, because the irish have trouble with their th's} p.s. can i call this my first ascii-art then? p.p.s why is the bottom line not on the bottom line? what? ###################################### # 1 : 1.6180339 # ######################################