The Nautilus Shell

WLS Success = You in perfect balance!

For us, the Nautilus shell represents perfect balance.

In geometry, there is a geometric construction that is called the perfect ratio, or Golden Ratio, because it represents proportion and balance. That ratio is called Phi. (Not Pi).

Numerically, Phi is 1.618 and this ratio will be found when you break a line segment into two parts such that the ratio of the whole line to the longest segment is the same as the ratio of the two line segments.

It is amazing, daunting and even, perhaps, humbling to see the ratio repeated over and over again in nature, architecture, art. It is blooming all over the place: pinecones, sunflowers, artichokes and pineapples.

The balance created by the Golden Ratio aesthetically pleases the eye. The nautilus shell is just one example of the Golden Ratio. The natural growth pattern of the nautilus shell represents Phi. As the sea creature grows, each shell section added increases by 1.618.

If you’d like to create the Golden Ratio, get out a compass, and a ruler.

Try one of these two constructions (one starts with a square, the other with a right triangle).

Try Construction 1:

Start with a square. Divide the square down the middle. From one end of the median, draw a line to the opposite corner. From the same point, draw a circle with the diagonal line as its radius Extend the base line to the perimeter of the circle Extend the rectangle. The ratio between the short and long sides of the rectangle is 1:1.6, or 1:Phi. Try Construction 2:

Create a right triangle, with a base of 1, and a side of 1/2

Draw a circle from the apex of the side, with a radius equal to the side

Draw a circle from the other end of the hypotenuse (c), with a radius of CD. The ratio of BE to EC is 1:1.6.

I am the greatest. Muhammad Ali