Kayakers, Recently, I heard about the golden ratio, which is a ratio that is found in an amazingly high frequency in nature, math, geometry and art. This ratio is: A divided by B equals 1.618. A very interesting website about this ratio is HTTP://golden number.net/. I was looking around to see if I could find this golden ratio in kayaking, and of all places, I found it in the Greenland paddle. Based on Greenland anthropomorphic sizing, my paddle should be around 88 inches long, with a loom of around 20 inches, which leaves the blades 34 inches long. If you divide the length of the blade by the length of the loom, the ratio is 1.7, which isn't the golden ratio of 1.618, but it's not far, and anthropomorphic sizing is only an approximation. By the way, the golden ratio is found in body proportions too. If the loom length was increased by 1 inch to 21 inches and the blade length decreased by a half inch to 33.5 inches, which still makes an 88 inch long paddle, the ratio becomes 1.595, which is pretty close to the golden ratio of 1.618. Of course, with the Greenland paddle, loom and blade length have a lot to do with hand placement and leverage on the paddle. Interesting? Duane Strosaker Southern California *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Mar 12 2005 - 13:48:36 PST
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