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Breathing Life Into a Number.(Brief Article)
Throughout history, math has been seen as a key to understanding the universe, "a more powerful instrument of knowledge than any other that has been bequeathed by human agency," wrote Descartes. Now a new book by Hubble space-telescope scientist Mario Livio explains how math is embedded in everything from language and art to nature and astronomy. How does he do that? By exploring the 2,400-year history of one number: phi, the lesser-known cousin of another remarkable number, pi.
In "The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number," Livio traces the discovery of phi back to ancient Greeks who noticed that when a line is divided into two unequal sections, the ratio of the longer part to the shorter is in the "golden proportion" if it equals the ratio of the whole line to the longer section. First dubbed the "divine proportion" by a 15th-century friar who argued that it was the most esthetically pleasing ratio, by the 20th century the number--now called phi--had developed a cult following ...
- German renaissance drawings in Frankfurt.
- Magazine article from: Apollo Ekserdjian, David January 1, 2004 700+ words
The number of German renaissance artists who can claim to be...a superlative collection of German renaissance paintings, which has very...with a finished painting. German renaissance drawings are often enchantingly...
- German Renaissance Prints: 1490-1550.
- Magazine article from: Renaissance Quarterly Hutchison, Jane Campbell March 22, 1997 700+ words
...the print trade in the early sixteenth century, a survey of the history of the British Museum's collection of German Renaissance prints highlights the achievements of such legendary curators of the past as Campbell Dodgson (1867-1948...
- Emblems of eminence; German Renaissance portrait medals; the age of Albrecht...
- Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News February 1, 2009 700+ words
9783777442358 Emblems of eminence; German Renaissance portrait medals; the age of Albrecht Durer: The collection of an art connoisseur. Volz, Peter & Hans Christoph Jokisch...
- Music in the German Renaissance: Sources, Styles and Contexts.
- Magazine article from: Renaissance Quarterly Strohm, Reinhard June 22, 1997 700+ words
...d. 1993). Kmetz has taken a courageous step. The "German Renaissance" is not an uncontroversial concept when it comes to music...as an unresolved and complex question, providing a great number of cool observations and stimulating questions. The third...
- The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art.
- Magazine article from: Renaissance Quarterly Krajewski, Bruce March 22, 1996 700+ words
...portrait" (xviii). Durer is the centerpiece and frontispiece in Koerner's book, for, as Koerner says, "German Renaissance art can be understood, to a surprising extent, as a reception of Durer's project of self-portraiture...
- [Woman of the German Renaissance, 16th century ; Knight and bailiff of...
- Picture from: NYPL Digital Gallery unknown January 1, 1934 700+ words
- Drawings of the German Renaissance.
- Magazine article from: World and I BELL, JUDITH April 1, 2000 700+ words
...Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, provide us with a rare look at the dawn of the northern Renaissance. The exhibition opens with a number of anonymous late medieval drawings. Typical of the work executed during the late fifteenth century is that of Master E.S...
- What Happened to the Renaissance in the German Academy? A Report on German...
- Magazine article from: Renaissance Quarterly BERNSTEIN, ECKHARD December 22, 1999 700+ words
...England, France and United States. During the last decade a number of institutes have been founded in Germany and Austria that...nineteenth century. Founded in the 1970s to accommodate the growing number of students demanding and receiving access to the universities...