The Greeks considered certain rectangles to be more aesthetically pleasing than others. They called these rectangles Golden Rectangles. The ratio of the length of the longer side to the length of the shorter side in a Golden Rectangle is always approximately 1.6.

The Golden Rectangle has been used in the design of many buildings (the Parthenon in Greece) and in the art of Leonardo da Vinci and Piet Mondrian. Discover where else the Golden Rectangle occurs.

Find occurrences of the Golden Rectangle by measuring! Measure the length and width of the following items. Calculate the ratio of the length of the longer side to the length of the shorter side. Which of these are Golden Rectangles? Find four more rectangular objects whose proportions fit those of Golden Rectangles. Record your results in the table below.

Object	Length of Longer Side (L)	Length of Shorter Side (S)	Ratio of L to S
playing card
window
index card
book cover
picture frame

Source: Virginia Training Package for Regional Training Project, sponsored by the Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Consortium at AEL