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Title: La matematica e l'architettura del Partenone
Author(s): BRIGO, Roberto
Journal: BABESCH
Volume: 83    Date: 2008   
Pages: 99-105
DOI: 10.2143/BAB.83.0.2033100

Abstract :
This great work of art bequeathed through time continues to arouse our interest, also because of its scientific features. Studying such an extended temple allows us to experience the sensitivity of its creator, and it evokes a sense of the ways in wich people used to think and feel during that historical period. The architectural features come from the Greek passion for the sciences, in particular for mathematics; ranging from prime numbers 2 and 3, with their odd/even distinction, to their turning into 4 and 9, from the Pythagorean triangles with their 3-4-5 long sides, to the sections comprising of, as in music sheets, the architectural arrangement: science turns into art. With respect to those mathematical sets, one may identify the foot as the unit of measurement used in the Parthenon, as well as discover the intellectual and diagrammatic processes drawing us ever closer to the secret core of this work of art.

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