Fibonacci Guage

[scmhogg]

The November 2006 issue of Wood Magazine had plans for what they called a Fibonacci Gauge. This gauge aids you in applying the Golden Mean to a Golden Rectangle.

I can understand why they would name this gauge in honor of Fibonacci and his wonderful number, much of which comports with phi. But, the Golden mean was around long before Fibonacci took a look.

I took the Wood plan and increased it by 150% on the copy machine. I made it out of some 1/8" brass I had on hand. The Wood plan called for 1/16" wood for the arms. Everything is attached with 1/4" binder screws.







Steve

[L. D. Jeffries]

Very nice looking work! When i get thru some currant projects I am going to make one myself as I design and make a lot of small trinket/jewlery/junk boxes and this would be a great help in deciding on dimensions. What guage brass did you use, it looks like it would not be too flexible which would be a problem.

[Hoakie]

Wow! you DO learn something new everyday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

Thanks
John

[Ken Massingale]

Steve, That is amazing. If you decide to make some to sell please let me know before the other hoodlums on the forum get them! ;-D
Ken

[Jaden]

Hoodlum Ken, I take great exception to that remark I would definitly not classify anyone on this site as a hoodlum...........now hooligan, there are plenty of hooligans......and maybe a few near-do-wells, but I don't don't believe there are any hoodlums.

Just trying to set the record straight.

Oh yeah, nice guage Steve...


There "other" Steve

[John Hunter]

Very nice.

[scmhogg]

LD--The brass bar stock was 1/8" thick. For non-ferrous metals, I think that it is close to 8 gauge. It is very inflexible. It's still scary to cut thick brass sandwiched between plywood on the table saw.

John--If you like the Golden Ratio. . . Look up Fibonacci's number. Look for plots or spirals. Could be the key to the universe.

Thank you for your kind comments. But why didn't someone tell me I was misspelling gauge???? Then everyone copied my misspelling.

Steve

[LCHIEN]

...Thank you for your kind comments. But why didn't someone tell me I was misspelling gauge???? Then everyone copied my misspelling.

Steve

Golden ratio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaNot to be confused with golden mean (philosophy), the felicitous middle between two extremes, nor with golden numbers, an indicator of years in astronomy ...

Steve,
If you want correcting, there are a couple of "mistakes" in your post -
The number 1.61803399... is not the golden mean but the golden ratio.
Fibonacci has a series, an infinate succession of numbers related by mathematical operations, not just one specific number, named after him, The Fibonacci Series. It has also been called the Fibonacci Sequence or Fibonacci Numbers, all referring to the series. "Fibonacci Number" is not the name for the golden ratio. The golden ratio has also been called the number Phi by some but I don't think that's universal and certainly does not have anywhere near the mathematical significance of Pi (3.14159...), which they were trying to emulate.

On the other hand, I like your gauge, looks nifty and very functional. And the golden ratio has certainly got pleasing proportions to it, no doubt, thus enamoring itself to those who do artistic work.



hope you don't take offense...

[scmhogg]

Loring,

I never take offense when someone aims to teach. I am a late-comer to an interest in math beyond algebra. After I discovered my attraction to golden ratio rectangles. Bought a copy of Mario Livio's book, The Golden Ratio [The Story of Phi, the world's most astonishing number]. Much of it was way over my head, but, it did introduce me to Fibonacci's Sequence. From there, I was introduced to Mandelbrot's Fractals. Now I am drowning.

I used Golden Mean, as that was the term, albeit incorrect, that was used in the Wood Magazine article. I did know that Fibonacci created a sequence, I was just trying to be cool with an offhand mention of his number. [0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377. . . .] The interesting connection between the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci's Sequence, is that from the 13/21 pair on, the ratio between the numbers is very close to the Golden Ratio.

21/13 = 1.615385
34/21 = 1.619048
55/34 = 1.617647
89/55 = 1.618182
144/89 = 1.617978 . . .

Steve

[mater]

That is neat. Excellent work.

[lrogers]

Very interesting. As someone else said, you learn something new every day. Nice job on turning that plan into a nice shop fixture.

[LarryG]

But why didn't someone tell me I was misspelling gauge????

We were all still working out the pronunciation of "Fibonacci."

Beautifully crafted, Steve, as usual.

[gsmittle]

Hoodlum Ken, I take great exception to that remark I would definitly not classify anyone on this site as a hoodlum...........now hooligan, there are plenty of hooligans......and maybe a few near-do-wells, but I don't don't believe there are any hoodlums.

Just trying to set the record straight.

Oh yeah, nice guage Steve...


There "other" Steve

I'm reasonably sure we have at least one rapscallion here, too.

+1 on the nice gauge.

Looks like I'm gonna have to learn this "Golden Mean" stuff, though it sounds suspiciously like mmmath....

g.

[LinuxRandal]

21/13 = 1.615385
34/21 = 1.619048
55/34 = 1.617647
89/55 = 1.618182
144/89 = 1.617978 . . .

Steve

I saw those numbers, and all I could think about were my Bosch routers, maybe that is why I like them so well.

[cabinetman]

Steve

Great gauge - you did a nice job. I first was aware of the "Golden Ratio" when I began doing plans for commercial work. An architect friend of mine helped me a lot in doing drawings and he had a template that worked like a pantograph. I have a wood pantograph that I can set to the ratio, but I haven't seen one like his since.

Doing proportional drawing after many years, what amazes me is at times how close I can get by eye to the ratio. Then, at other times the ratio layout just doesn't look right. Go figure.