Architectural mathematics, the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers

A. N. Kovalev

Matematičeskoe obrazovanie, Tome 112 (2024) no. 4, pp. 37-54.

Résumé

Two geometric constructions that could lead to the introduction of the golden ratio into architecture in the IV-III millennia BC are considered. The use of approximations found at different times in the Ancient World for $\sqrt{5}$ — $11/5$, $9/4$, $47/21$, $38/17$, $123/55$ and $161/72$ — when determining the approximate value of the Phidias numbers, it could lead to the discovery of a series of Fibonacci numbers. Arguments and examples from the history of architecture are given in support of this hypothesis.

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