In chapters thirteen through twenty-five of The DaVinci Code, I was surprised by the accuracy of Dan Brown's research. Everything written on both the Fibonacci Sequence and the Divine Proportion were true statements. For this post, I want to discuss the historical and modern meaning of the Divine Proportion and the Fibonacci Sequence--and how fascinating and captivating they are.
The Fibonacci Sequence runs as this: 1,1,2,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,213 to infinity.
Turns out through my research that both the Fibonacci Sequence and the Divine Proportion intertwine with one another. PHI is the quantity represented by 1.618, also considered to be the most perfect number in the world. In The DaVinci Code, Langdon goes off with several examples that I cross-checked to make sure that they indeed were true statements: "Measure the distance from your shoulder to your fingertips, and then divide it by the distance from your elbow to your fingertips. PHI again. Another? Hip to floor divided by knee to floor. PHI again. Finger joints. Toes. Spinal divisions. PHI. PHI. PHI. My friends, each of you is a walking tribute to the Divine Proportion." (page 102)
The Greeks are often accredited the discovery of the Divine Proportion (also known as the Golden Number). The Golden Spiral (a sort of shell) is most commonly associated to the Divine Proportion. This is because the ratio of the x-axis and the y-axis of the shell are persistent--meaning that the ratio at the smallest end of the shell is the same ratio as the one on the larger end. Through research of this shell, the ratio of the small shells are always 34:55, the medium-sized shells fall along 55:89, and the largest shells possess the ratio of 89:144. These numbers, if for example 89 represents 1 unit, 144 would represent exactly 1.618 units! Who ever said that nature wasn't perfect? There is a perfect number out there: 1.618. Philotaxes occurs in nature. It is when the leafs on a stem of a flower displace and occur in the form of the Divine Proportion. According to http://www.keplersdiscovery.com/DivineProportion.html, in the case of roses, an angle congruent to 360 degrees by divine proportion (take 360 degrees and divide it by the Divine Proportion, and it turns out you get 137.5) which is the angle that separates the petals from each other.
Since Sophie's grandfather was lying on the floor in a pentacle, I decided to research further on what the pentacle has to do with the Divine Proportion and/or the Fibonacci Sequence. When one constricts a tiled pentagon (meaning that the pentagon is divided inscribed within a circle is divided up into segments according to the vertices), every segment is smaller than the one before it by exactly the ratio of the Divine Proportion.
This ties into The DaVinci Code because everything in the mystery so far resembles perfection. The penticle represents female beauty. DaVinci showed the "perfect" man, in a "perfect" circle. Coincidence? I think not. Maybe the Pythagoreans were correct in their assumptions that the Earth and the heavens are perfect: the Divine Proportion and the Fibonacci Sequence come together to prove that.
After reading through chapter twenty-five of the Da Vinci Code, I cannot say that I am surprised about the book being banned. This book was banned in Lebanon for insulting Christianity. I think that the book could be looked at this way because Dan Brown portrays some of the high up catholic bishops as the bad guys. For example Bishop Aringarosa who is the head of the Opus Dei is following some person who is “the teacher” and they seem to be planning something very bad.
ReplyDeleteI think that Brown did a very good job of researching. I think this because I learned a lot of information just by reading this section. I learned that PHI is equal to 1.618 and that 1.618:1 is the divine proportion. This ratio appears in many things that are natural and man made. I really enjoy reading books that teach me about things because I learn so much and it is a fun way too learn it. I also like that this book makes you guess about something and then you will find the answer in one of the following chapters. For this my opinion on Dan Brown’s writing is that it is very good.
I wondered why Sophie did not find out the anagram that her grandfather left her even though she went to college for and has a job in cryptology. I feel like she could have done it easily if she weren't feeling guilty about not contacting her grandfather before he died. I would also like to know what Sophie saw her grandfather do that was so crazy. After mentioning is so many times I am really itching to know. This also supports Dan Brown being a good writer because he is hooking his readers throughout the book so that they want to just keep reading like I do.
What might Fache do when he learns what Sophie’s message is?