Golden ratio - Use it to watch your man's waist

A golden rectangle with longer side a and shorter side b, when placed adjacent to a square with sides of length a, will produce a similar golden rectangle with longer side a + b and shorter side a.

Chocolates, cookies and candies.  Festivities are a period of time where the most weight is put on. It’s also a time where men love to chit chat over an array of goodies. If you don’t want your man to become the next victim of a Chinese New Year “hangover”, you’d better watch over your husband so that his body doesn’t go out of proportion.

With that said, did you know that it is believed that the ideal body proportion of a man is measured with the golden ratio as a model?

Calculate ideal golden ratio here. Approximately, a man’s waist should be 45% of his height.

What is a ‘golden’ ratio?

For starters, the idea is actually much simpler than the math behind it.

Instead of using specific numbers, let’s use variables “a,” “b,” and “c” for the ratios.

So any two-amount ratio can now be expressed simply as a:b

In a Golden Ratio, “a,” “b,” and their total, “a+b” all have a special relationship to one another. The shorter amount has the same ratio to the larger amount as the larger amount has to the total of both amounts.

For example, here is a line divided into two different lengths, “a,” and “b”.

If the segment is golden, then the ratio of a to b should be the same as the ratio of b to the total of “a plus b”, or expressed mathematically as a:b = b:(a+b) = 1.61803 39887 49894 84820.

There you go. This forms the basis of the golden ratio. Of course, it gets much more complex than this when the real mathematics comes into play. However, for simpletons like me, I shall not go too in-depth about it.

More about golden ratio

Throughout history, the ratio for length to width of rectangles of 1.61803 39887 49894 84820 has been considered the most pleasing to the eye. This ratio was named the golden ratio by the Greeks. In the world of mathematics, the numeric value is called “phi”, named for the Greek sculptor Phidias. The space between the columns in this structure shown below form golden rectangles. There are golden rectangles throughout this structure which is found in Athens, Greece.

What’s so special?

The golden ratio is used in art, music and even found in nature itself. The most common application of it is in the area of architecture, i.e. building designs. It is often said that the Golden Ratio makes the most pleasing and beautiful shapes, epitomised by the parthenon in Athens. Why not use it to check if your man has a shape worthy of “pleasing” the eyes.

Sources: geom.uiuc.edu, idreamofarchitecture