# The Golden Ratio

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-ratio/375173>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 3, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-ratio/375173 "2006-10-03T23:38:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-ratio/375173/21 "2006-10-05T20:14:28Z")

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[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]  
Another curious fact about φ is that it’s the number whose square is one more than itself. How that relates to all its other attributes I have little, if any, idea.  
[/QUOTE]

You can define φ as the positive root of x[sup]2[/sup] - x - 1, and many texts do.

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-ratio/375173/22 "2006-10-05T22:09:52Z")

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Also, iff you add a square to the side of a Golden Rectangle, you get _another_ Golden Rectangle.

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