The Face & Phi

The golden ratio is also evident in the human face. Just as you would not go up to someone on the street to measure the distance from their belly button to the ground, it is highly recommended that you don't pull out a tape measure to check these ratios out. Besides, many people may not like being told that they may not have the "perfect" face as assessed by artists, scientists, mathematicians, and others.

I was not surprised when I learned that the distance of my two upper front teeth divided by the height of these teeth yields the golden ratio. The golden ratio is also found in the length of face (D) / width of face (d), the distance between the middle of the lips and where the eyebrows meet (D)/ length of nose (d),  the length of mouth (D) / width of nose (d), and the length of face (D) / distance between tip of jaw and where the eyebrows meet (d). 


The beauty doesn't stop there. The golden ratio is one more than its reciprocal, meaning that two of the numbers in series, say 610 and 987 when divided (987/610) gives us 1.61803... and its reciprocal (610/987) is 0.61803... 


If you have an hour and a half or so, please visit the YouTube link to experience Keith Devlin's presentation, Fibonacci & the Golden Ratio Exposed, that was a part of the Math Encounter series hosted by the Museum of Mathematics.

Search: Devlin Math Encounters