Definition:Golden Mean/Historical Note

Historical Note on Golden Mean
The Egyptians knew about the golden mean. It was referred to in the Rhind papyrus as sacred.

The heights of the Great Pyramids of Gizeh are almost exactly $\phi$ of half the lengths of their bases.

It is believed that the Ancient Greeks used $\phi$ in their architecture, but there is no extant documentary evidence of this.

Surprisingly, they had no short term for this concept.

The Renaissance artists exploited it and called it the Divine Proportion.

discussed it in his book.

The first occcurrence of the term sectio aurea ("golden section") was probably by.

coined the use of the uppercase Greek letter $\Phi$ (phi) for the golden mean, originating from the Greek artist Phidias, who was said to have used it as a basis for calculating proportions in his sculpture.

Its companion value $\dfrac 1 \Phi = \Phi - 1$ was given the lowercase version $\phi$ or $\varphi$.

However, this convention is far from universal, and the larger value $1 \cdot 618 \ldots$ is usually denoted $\phi$.

It is said to produce the most pleasing proportions, and as a consequence many artists have used this ratio in their works.