With The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart playing in the background, I am increasingly realising that I want to make an entry in the blog, but I am not sure what to write about. Quite a few readers have probably read Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. The best part of the book, according to me, was not the extremely fast paced story. I like some perspectives he brought out, and in the course of doing this made me think a little about the creation of earth and life.

One of the first subjects Brown introduces in discussing the works of Da Vinci is the number PHI. The infinite nonrepeating decimal 1.6180339887…

I never had the opportunity to take serious classes in studying art, so I’ve never been introduced to the concept of PHI in the field of art. The Divine Proportion. Brown writes “PHI is generally considered the most beautiful number in the universe.“

PHI is derived from the Fibonacci sequence. It turns out that PHI has a role as a natural building block of nature. Plants, animals, and even humans possess dimensional properties which adhere to the ratio of PHI to 1.
For example, in a honeybee community, the females outnumber the males by 1.618 to 1.
The ratio of each spiral to the next on a chambered Nautilus’ shell is 1.618 to 1.
“Sunflower seeds grow in opposing spirals.” The ratio of each spiral to the next is PHI to 1. This is also true of spiraled pinecone petals, leaf arrangement on plant stalks and insect segmentation.
Da Vinci studied corpses and discovered the Divine Proportion in human bone structure. The distance from the tip of your head to the floor, compared to the distance from your navel to the floor is PHI to 1. You’ll find the same ratio with hip to floor divided by knee to floor, finger joints, toes, and spinal divisions.

Another such number is PI. I guess we are more acquainted with PI than with PHI. π is also transcendental, as was proven by Ferdinand von Lindemann in 1882. This means that there is no polynomial with rational coefficients of which π is a root. An important consequence of the transcendence of π is the fact that it is not constructible. Because the coordinates of all points that can be constructed with ruler and compass are constructible numbers, it is impossible to square the circle, that is, it is impossible to construct, using ruler and compass alone, a square whose area is equal to the area of a given circle. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

My question is – is this natural adherence to laws quoted as above a role played by God or is it something science can explain? To rephrase – we have seen scores of such examples where science (like geometry) and nature follow rules and laws which are similar. Like, objects of fixed volume tend to acquire a shape of miminum surface area – a sphere. Science has managed to explain this.

Can the natural and frequent occurance of PHI and PI in various aspects of nature and the arts be explained by science alone? Or is there a mystical factor associated with all this which brings in God – an omnipotent governing ruler?