# Another way to express the golden ratio mathematically

In this post I’m going to be proving that…

$\varphi =\frac { 1+\sqrt { 5 } }{ 2 } =1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+... } } }$

So, here I go…

$x=\frac { 1+\sqrt { 5 } }{ 2 } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }=\frac { \left( 1+\sqrt { 5 } \right) }{ 2 } \cdot \frac { \left( 1+\sqrt { 5 } \right) }{ 2 } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }=\frac { 1+2\sqrt { 5 } +5 }{ 4 } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }=\frac { 6+2\sqrt { 5 } }{ 4 } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }-1=\frac { 6+2\sqrt { 5 } }{ 4 } -\frac { 4 }{ 4 } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }-1=\frac { 2+2\sqrt { 5 } }{ 4 } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }-1=\frac { 2 }{ 2 } \cdot \frac { \left( 1+\sqrt { 5 } \right) }{ 2 }$

Wait for it…

$\Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }-1=1\cdot x\\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }-1=x\\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad { x }^{ 2 }=x+1\\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad \frac { { x }^{ 2 } }{ x } =\frac { x }{ x } +\frac { 1 }{ x } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad x=1+\frac { 1 }{ x } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad \frac { 1+\sqrt { 5 } }{ 2 } =1+\frac { 1 }{ x } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad \frac { 1+\sqrt { 5 } }{ 2 } =1+\frac { 1 }{ \left( 1+\frac { 1 }{ x } \right) } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad \frac { 1+\sqrt { 5 } }{ 2 } =1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+\frac { 1 }{ x } } \\ \\ \Rightarrow \quad \frac { 1+\sqrt { 5 } }{ 2 } =1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+\frac { 1 }{ \left( 1+\frac { 1 }{ x } \right) } } \\ \\ \therefore \quad \frac { 1+\sqrt { 5 } }{ 2 } =1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+\frac { 1 }{ 1+... } } }$

This expression for the golden ratio is quite common, however, before I produced this post – I think it would’ve been very hard to figure out how to derive it from scratch. There aren’t many quirky proofs like this one on the internet – I am quite certain. I hope you liked reading this post! 😀

# THE IRRATIONAL NUMBER VALUE INDEX

Want to derive the value of specific irrational numbers from scratch?

Just click on the surd you’d like to discover more about, and you will be directed to a page which will give you instructions on how to derive its value.

What we haven’t included on this list are the square roots of numbers which can easily be found. We’ve only found the value of surds up to the square root of 11.

 √2 √3 √5 √7 √11 (1+√5)/2