BBC FOUR's Night of Numbers continues with a short film looking at the golden ratio: 1.61803399. What do the nautilus seashell, the Great Pyramid, and The Mona Lisa have in common? They are all feature Phi otherwise known as The Golden Ratio. It is the number that links a pineapple, Leonardo da Vinci and the breeding patterns of rabbits. This film examines the extraordinary occurrence in nature and art of the number known as Phi - also known as The Golden ratio. The Life of Phi examines the intriguing connection between this unique number [ namely, 1.61803399…] and the Fibonacci Numbers.

Documentary Description

BBC FOUR celebrated mathematics and the beauty of numbers with a series of programmes about this most precise and exacting of all intellectual disciplines. Throughout the night, the channel showed films offering insights into the minds of great mathematicians, revealing the stories behind some of the great mathematical breakthroughs. The BBC's celebration of mathematics has a strong Oxford flavour: Marcus du Sautoy presents `Music of the Primes'; 'Breaking the Code' draws on Andrew Hodges' biography of Alan Turing; many of the mathematical ideas in Escher's work were suggested by Roger Penrose; and of course Andrew Wiles was an Oxford undergraduate.