The (ab)surd golden ratio | Robb Enzmann | TEDxMiamiUniversity

Mathematics has become the ugly duckling of the American education system. At first it's strange and maybe a little scary, but matures into something beautiful later on. Most people don't get to see that stage, though, and it's Robb Enzmann's intent to bring the fun part of math into the layperson's life by exploring one of nature's most fascinating numbers: The Golden Ratio.

Robb is a senior at Miami University, planning to graduate with a B.A. in Music and a B.A. in Mathematics this coming May, and will attend Miami’s graduate school to pursue an M.A. in mathematics starting in August. Robb is a passionate lover of music and technology, and blends the two as a professional music editor for figure skaters across the country. He originally came to Miami to study piano, but after taking a course in the history of mathematics his junior year, he gained a new perspective of math and picked up the double major. For his math capstone, he chose to study the Golden Ratio, since there were rumors that it could be found in the compositional structure of some music. To his dismay, most music, art, body proportions, architecture, and other things pertaining to aesthetics were completely devoid of the Golden Ratio.

[R_bird]

He just made a math presentation more intuitive than dull. Nice.

[fliggityboo]

such a great explanation, he needs to teach a class in the golden ratio, something where he can go more in depth about how to find its properties in architecture, or in artwork, even music uses it. Great presentation, we understand that these ted talks are only allowed so much time for a talk, great conceptual revealing though, insightful.

[jeronhanson]

Thank you kindly for the wonderful, clear explanation. You are very good at what you do.

[mohamednmirich]

Robb you’re such a great man! Namaste 🙏🏼💚 mathematics is love

[stenoch]

WOW! Totally revolutionized the way I look at math! So, no more TED Talks from now on. Thanx!

[abywater]

Using Phi in buildings possibly came about because it was noticed that almost nobody complained about how it looked - but did in other ratios in other buildings. Possibly.

[DeathxStrike]

But phi isnt suposed to be used this way, ignores the fact that the body is in proportion to phi that the foot is phi to the leg, and that the leg is phi to the torso.

Phi in the human body | Le Corbusier (1887-1965). Depicts phi in relation from one body part to the next this also allows the foot including toes to be the same length as the forearm from inside the elbow to the wrist.

[pvdguitars]

5, 8, 13, 144 are important biblical numbers.
It gets interesting when you take 144 (12th Fibonacci number and 12 to the power 2).
When you multiply 144 by 322 you get the 24th Fibonacci number: 46368 ( harshad value is 9).
When you multiply the 24th Fibonacci number and subtract the 12th number (144), you get the 36th number. It works for every large Fibonacci number!!! ✝️

[TheZealousNobleman]

Really good talk. Great even. Very humble speaker. And its a smart topic.

[jamesbarclay]

I designed and built a set of hifi stereo speakers using the Golden Ratio. I did everything correctly and used the right math. They kick the snot out of every other set of speakers I've put them against. They cost me less than $200. (The Ohm Fs I compared them with cost over $3000. Nyah Nyah!) I wouldn't dare incur the ire of any students by trying to teach them math.

[davinciclub]

Da Vinci and many ancient artists and architects were well aware of PHI and the Golden Ratio.

[chrisalex]

Math is unintuitive to most people because it describes the process of reality, not the existence itself. What I mean is that everything in math is taken from its context and turned into patterns, numbers and variables, which can only provide an extremely exact and thorough expression of the universe. That is fascinating in its own right, but I feel like people who are really good at math, lack the sensibility to see the universe as it actually is. In other words, seeing the universe without patterns. The universe as seen through math is always described. The universe as seen by human beings is experienced. Math describes the experience to perfection, even the physics of gravity. Because of this, math allows for the manipulation and accurate interaction with our universe in ways that generate real results for everyone. The problem is not in what math is, but in what it is not. Math lacks the totality of what something is precisely because its nature is to break things down from their whole in order to describe how that whole is composed in the first place. Therefore, the only kind of math professor who could ever truly teach math to everyone is one that is also sensitive to reality with a total absence of math. Only that kind of person could teach math to anyone. This video is not an example of that because it is all description. There's no actual explanation of the process itself. Listing the steps or describing how patterns work in nature is not an explanation, but only a description. In short, math today lacks explanations. The only thing that links reality to math is the reasoning behind it. Most mathematicians are only concerned with solving problems (in other words learning math by doing math), not by actually understanding the reasoning behind it in a non mathematical way. In fact, they usually try to turn problems into mathematical concepts as soon as they encounter them. This creates a total disconnect between the world in which people actually live, and the incredibly complex mathematical ways that exist to understand it through description.

Imagine the golden pyramid, not its dimensions, not its perfect proportions, but just the pyramid itself. What does it make you feel? Can feeling ever be linked to math? Not really. By its very nature, reality and math can only be linked by the person doing the math. The problem lies in that usually that person tends to also see the universe as a mathematical description. Einstein might have been someone who understood both, which is why he linked math to reality through imagination. He worked backwards, not seeking to describe reality but experiencing reality in his mind and then finding the mathematical descriptions as to why reality is what it is. Most mathematicians don't work like that. They tend to think of ways of defining the workings of reality rather than experience them first and then let that experience (through imagination) find its correct place in a mathematical description. I wrote this long comment because this video made me truly realize today why most people are not good a math. Most people who are good at math, have always been good at it. The real interesting event would be to see a person that is bad a math become a genius at it. Goodnight

[Pharesm]

The tile pattern isn't nearly as recent as you think.
Maybe in Europe / America it was only figured out recently. Arabian cultures had this figured out more than 2, 000 Years ago and the proof is staring you in the face from their building's tiled floors and walls.

[mitigiant]

It is scary because they don't teach us the interesting part of math in schools

[davidderifield]

"I'm not here to talk about the golden ratio"

Then I'm not here to watch it.

[dennismayfield]

Best Presentation Ever!! Bravo!! Callisimo!!

[notaleg]

Excellent Maff Professor. It's so important to keep the audience entertained; esp when we've grown to hate maff. U did great!

[pinarellolimoncello]

There has to be a link between the golden ratio Phi and our language, most people know the verse 'In the beginning was the word..' well look at a word like PHIlosopher meaning lover of wisdom or francoPHIle, meaning a person that loves all things French or France. From etymology, PHI meaning love, and maths (golden ratio) we can now establish a link between our language, maths, nature and holy scripture. So as it says 'In the beginning was the word, the word WAS GOD, and the word (reasoning) was with God'. If we look at many of the social constructs we have in society in modern times it is clear that many of them are not born out of love but out of conflict, competition, misconception etc. Obviously we have free will and the possibility of disagreeing with God, choosing alternative routes but in my opinion it is also something that has been forgotten about and the redemption of mankind is all about accepting holy wisdom, working in harmony with the divine intelligence, love, life, beauty.

[umi_nari]

And if you count both directions the number 9 overlaps the other 9, wonder why?

[jean-lucmechantcon]

First time I learned about the golden ratio was in Math class and Math book in highschool !