Let’s talk about beauty, the kind that ambushes you in the middle of your day and briefly shuts down your internal monologue. Not makeup-counter beauty, but the sort that makes you stop, stare, and wonder who’s in charge of quality control at the universe because clearly, they’ve had a very good moment.
We like to pretend this reaction is entirely personal, beyond explanation, immune to analysis. But beauty keeps ruining that story by behaving suspiciously like it has rules. And the awkward truth is that those rules look a lot like mathematics.
Mathematics Creates Beauty
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Mathematics? The same subject that made you cry into your high school geometry homework. Yes. That mathematics. But before you roll your eyes and retreat into the comforting arms of beauty is subjective and I don’t wish to be challenged on this, let me tell you a story.
Pythagoras on Beauty
It starts with Pythagoras, the ancient Greek philosopher who, like many great thinkers, had an unfortunate tendency to notice things and then refuse to let them go. Wandering past a blacksmith’s shop one day, he noticed that some hammer blows sounded harmonious, while others grated like nails on a chalkboard. Instead of chalking this up to taste, Pythagoras weighed the hammers. And lo and behold, he found harmony to be a matter of proportion.
Nicole James
Author
Nicole James is a freelance journalist for The Epoch Times based in Australia. She is an award-winning short story writer, journalist, columnist, and editor. Her work has appeared in newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sun-Herald, The Australian, the Sunday Times, and the Sunday Telegraph. She holds a BA Communications majoring in journalism and two post graduate degrees, one in creative writing.
