[microsound] 1.61803399

[Andrew Salch]

The length of the year is the period of revolution of the Earth about the 
Sun. You could use the geometry of the Earth's orbit to come up with some 
clever reason for "phi day" to fall on a particular day of the year; that 
seems more satisfying (at least to me) than choosing a day based on the 
decimal expansion of phi, or some other non-geometric means.

For example, at any moment, there is a unique rectangle that can be 
inscribed in the plane of the Earth's orbit such that two of the 
rectangle's sides are given by the major axis and the minor axis of the 
Earth's elliptical orbit about the Sun, with one corner of the rectangle 
given by the Sun, and the opposite corner of the rectangle given by the 
Earth. There are eight moments in each year at which that rectangle is of 
the correct proportions to form a golden rectangle. Perhaps someone wants 
to calculate on what dates those eight moments of the year fall. Or you 
could use the geometry of the solar system (on which our whole calendar is 
based) in other clever ways to pick out certain days of the year in which 
some proportion of distances between objects in the solar system is equal 
to phi.



On Fri, 12 Mar 2010, David Powers wrote:

> Interesting... so in the Northern Hemisphere it falls on Halloween,
> which might add a new twist to the interpretation of Phi...
>
> Having a different date for Northern and Southern hemisphere is
> problematic for a global event though. The proposed date for the
> Northern Hemisphere, May 6th though, would be a practical choice if we
> want to start the project now, because it is both in the near future
> but distant enough that people have a reasonable amount of time to
> create something.
>
> ~David
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 2:12 PM, Kim Cascone <kim at anechoicmedia.com> wrote:
>> here's another take on the idea of Phi Day:
>>
>> http://www.goldenratio.org/phi_day.html
>>
>>
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