LOOKING BACK GOING FORWARD
In the early 1960s, our family lived on Big Bend Blvd., across from Oak Hill Cemetery in Kirkwood, next to Crestwood, Missouri, southwest of St. Louis city about ten miles.
In the relative obscurity of this wooded location, we four (4) older Coleman children tended to each other, while looking after our two (2) baby brothers, who were in fact, essentially infants. Main, primary responsibility fell upon me as the eldest to handle all house matters. Daddy and Mama both had jobs.
But, we played and invented many games and distractions with which to amuse ourselves and each other. We played checkers, jacks, jumped rope, climbed trees; and we played cards, games like "War," "Tonk" and "Pitty-Pat." We also made up a card game of our own, that we called "Down Under," opposite of "War."
One of our favorite memory games was doubling numbers, i.e. , 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. We reached up into the thousands with this rapidly-recited game. It developed mathematics acuity. And it was fun as we played!
When I was in the 5th or 6th grade at James Milton Turner Elementary School in nearby Meacham Park, I was shocked to see our younger brother, Harold, being escorted into my classroom by his 1st or 2nd grade teacher. She was gushing of his being a sort of mathematics whiz! On cue, Harold began rattling off our "doubling game" repertoire in fast-paced rhythms, flawlessly. I said nothing at first, but with all the acclaim from my classmates, I had to inform them that he learned that at home from our "doubling game!"
Today, I was delighted to learn that our doubling game from childhood has a proper name. It is formally known as "'geometric progression or series,' like 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, et cetera," according to THE GEOMETRY OF ART AND LIFE, by Matila Ghyka (1946, 1977), p.3.
On the next page of this intriguing book, I was able to understand, at last, the ratio-concept known as "Phi." Phi I had grasped intuitively, without understanding objectively.
He wrote:
"This is the ratio known as the 'Golden Section'; when it exists between two parts of a whole (here the segments a and b, the sum of which equals the segment c) it determines between the whole and its two parts a proportion such that the ratio between the greater and the smaller part is equal to the ratio to the whole and the greater."
P.3-4
From his description, I deduced:
If the ratio between the greater and lesser parts of a given line is the same as the whole line to its greater part, its resulting ratio is "Phi." Or the Golden Section.
Moving back from here is forward!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratiop
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
LOOKING BACK GOING FORWARD
LOOKING BACK GOING FORWARD
In the early 1960s, our family lived on Big Bend Blvd., across from Oak Hill Cemetery in Kirkwood, next to Crestwood, Missouri, southwest of St. Louis city about ten miles.
In the relative obscurity of this wooded location, we four (4) older Coleman children tended to each other, while looking after our two (2) baby brothers, who were in fact, essentially infants. Main, primary responsibility fell upon me as the eldest to handle all house matters. Daddy and Mama both had jobs.
But, we played and invented many games and distractions with which to amuse ourselves and each other. We played checkers, jacks, jumped rope, climbed trees; and we played cards, games like "War," "Tonk" and "Pitty-Pat." We also made up a card game of our own, that we called "Down Under," opposite of "War."
One of our favorite memory games was doubling numbers, i.e. , 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. We reached up into the thousands with this rapidly-recited game. It developed mathematics acuity. And it was fun as we played!
When I was in the 5th or 6th grade at James Milton Turner Elementary School in nearby Meacham Park, I was shocked to see our younger brother, Harold, being escorted into my classroom by his 1st or 2nd grade teacher. She was gushing of his being a sort of mathematics whiz! On cue, Harold began rattling off our "doubling game" repertoire in fast-paced rhythms, flawlessly. I said nothing at first, but with all the acclaim from my classmates, I had to inform them that he learned that at home from our "doubling game!"
Today, I was delighted to learn that our doubling game from childhood has a proper name. It is formally known as "'geometric progression or series,' like 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, et cetera," according to THE GEOMETRY OF ART AND LIFE, by Matila Ghyka (1946, 1977), p.3.
On the next page of this intriguing book, I was able to understand, at last, the ratio-concept known as "Phi." Phi I had grasped intuitively, without understanding objectively.
He wrote:
"This is the ratio known as the 'Golden Section'; when it exists between two parts of a whole (here the segments a and b, the sum of which equals the segment c) it determines between the whole and its two parts a proportion such that the ratio between the greater and the smaller part is equal to the ratio to the whole and the greater."
P.3-4
From his description, I deduced:
If the ratio between the greater and lesser parts of a given line is the same as the whole line to its greater part, its resulting ratio is "Phi." Or the Golden Section.
Moving back from here is forward!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratiop
