Departmental Café Session

The Department of Science and Humanities had its fifth Departmental Café Sessions on the 25^th of January 2020. The resource person for the afternoon was Prof. Vaishali Parakhi who spoke on the Golden Ratio and how it can be seen in almost everything around us.

Prof. Vaishali began the session by explaining the concept of the Fibonacci sequence saying that it is a series of numbers, the next number of which is found by adding the two numbers before it. When we make squares with those widths we get a spiral which is called the golden spiral. She also said that when we take any two successive Fibonacci Numbers, their ratio is always very close to 1.618. She then went on to show how this golden spiral can be seen in almost everything in nature; from the milky way in the galaxy to the tornados and cyclones. She also demonstrated how the golden ratio describes structural perfection in our human body when the calculated ratio of a:b = 1.618. She made us realize that we enjoy the beauty of certain things or structures because they have been constructed in the golden ration; like the Taj Mahal or the Greek structures. She also told us that many musical instruments are also made keeping in mind the golden ratio. She concluded the session by saying that Math may not teach us how to add love and subtract hate but it gives us hope that every problem has a solution. Overall, it was a session that piqued interest into a new concept that can be related to everyday lives.