Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?

Spirals, with their widespread presence in both nature and culture, are universally admired. Although there are different types, such as the Archimedean, logarithmic, and golden spirals, they are indiscriminately considered as beautiful. This universal view might explain the lack of studies investig...

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Main Author: Ronald Hübner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2024-03-01
Series:i-Perception
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695241243319
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author Ronald Hübner
author_facet Ronald Hübner
author_sort Ronald Hübner
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description Spirals, with their widespread presence in both nature and culture, are universally admired. Although there are different types, such as the Archimedean, logarithmic, and golden spirals, they are indiscriminately considered as beautiful. This universal view might explain the lack of studies investigating aesthetic differences among spirals. To show that there are indeed differences, the beauty of the golden spiral was compared with that of the Fibonacci spiral in this empirical study. Since the curvature of the golden spiral changes continuously, whereas that of the Fibonacci spiral does so in steps, the golden spiral was predicted to be aesthetically preferred. The results clearly confirmed this prediction. That the difference in preference was really based on the continuity versus discontinuity of the curvature is supported by the further result that an Archimedean spiral was preferred over a Dürer spiral, which similarly differed in their continuity.
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spelling doaj.art-f4490ab271af4a95aaab2675ee265e4d2024-04-10T09:04:00ZengSAGE Publishingi-Perception2041-66952024-03-011510.1177/20416695241243319Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?Ronald HübnerSpirals, with their widespread presence in both nature and culture, are universally admired. Although there are different types, such as the Archimedean, logarithmic, and golden spirals, they are indiscriminately considered as beautiful. This universal view might explain the lack of studies investigating aesthetic differences among spirals. To show that there are indeed differences, the beauty of the golden spiral was compared with that of the Fibonacci spiral in this empirical study. Since the curvature of the golden spiral changes continuously, whereas that of the Fibonacci spiral does so in steps, the golden spiral was predicted to be aesthetically preferred. The results clearly confirmed this prediction. That the difference in preference was really based on the continuity versus discontinuity of the curvature is supported by the further result that an Archimedean spiral was preferred over a Dürer spiral, which similarly differed in their continuity.https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695241243319
spellingShingle Ronald Hübner
Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?
i-Perception
title Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?
title_full Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?
title_fullStr Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?
title_full_unstemmed Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?
title_short Golden spiral or Fibonacci spiral: Which is more beautiful and why?
title_sort golden spiral or fibonacci spiral which is more beautiful and why
url https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695241243319
work_keys_str_mv AT ronaldhubner goldenspiralorfibonaccispiralwhichismorebeautifulandwhy