Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

by Charles Seife

The pentagram became the most sacred symbol of the Pythagorean brotherhood because the lines of the star are divided in this special way—the pentagram is chock-full of the golden ratio—and for Pythagoras, the golden ratio was the king of numbers. The golden ratio was favored by artists and nature alike and seemed to prove the Pythagorean assertion that music, beauty, architecture, nature, and the very construction of the cosmos were all intertwined and inseparable. To the Pythagorean mind, ratios controlled the universe, and what was true for the Pythagoreans soon became true for the entire West. The supernatural link between aesthetics, ratios, and the universe became one of the central and long-lasting tenets of Western civilization. As late as Shakespeare’s time, scientists talked about the revolution of orbs of different proportions and discussed the heavenly music that reverberated throughout the cosmos.