Does anyone know any practical uses for the number Phi?

[xJuggleboy]

Does anyone know any practical uses for the number Phi? I have just read a book about it and I am wondering what else it can be used for. Such as in Electronics or mechanical engineering. Thanks! =-)

 

[DuncanM]

I don't know if there are any "practical uses" for Phi, it simply seems to come up quite often in nature and has several unique properties (for example, the arrangement of flower petals, seeds, the Great Pyramid of Giza, etc.).

There is much material posted on the following website:

http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fib.html

This would give you a good start. If you do a search for "phi" or "golden section" you will find much more.

Regards,


DuncanM
http://www.rocketscientists.ca/

 

[SGT]

I don't know if there are any "practical uses" for Phi, it simply seems to come up quite often in nature and has several unique properties (for example, the arrangement of flower petals, seeds, the Great Pyramid of Giza, etc.).

There is much material posted on the following website:

http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fib.html

This would give you a good start. If you do a search for "phi" or "golden section" you will find much more.

Regards,


DuncanM
http://www.rocketscientists.ca/

Nothing of this is true! New Agers make gross approximations to several logarithmic spirals in order to fit them to the number phi and the golden rule.
For a good debunking see this http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/pseudo/fibonacc.htm

 

[brunardot]

Phi, pi, Fibonacci sequence, and Nature

Does anyone know any practical uses for the number Phi? I have just read a book about it and I am wondering what else it can be used for. Such as in Electronics or mechanical engineering. Thanks! =-)

Phi is exactly the perigee of an ellipse that has One, “1,” for the Natural function (often referred to as half the focal length, which length, heuristically, represents a wave; thus, the soliton equals One, “1,” which represents the smallest pulse of a particular form of energy.

When the perigee of said elliptical form (same algebraic relationship between major and minor diameters) is One, "1," (representing the smallest time unit) the Fibonacci sequence's first 3 to 5 terms (depending upon your definition of the FS) can be found within the simple, structural parts of said ellipse.

These relationships easily, directly connect Phi, pi, and the Fibonacci sequence to one another . . . and Nature.