Robert Langdon - Quora Quora After a pretty thorough search of the book I’ve been unable to find this sentence as you quote it. Are you sure it’s in the book as opposed to the film? It’s definitely in Goldman’s screenplay: So th... Robert Langdon Saga in Film The Da Vinci Code Robert Langdon Saga in Novel Angels and Demons... You've reached the end of your feed. About Professor Robert Langdon is a fictional character created by the author Dan Brown for his novels: Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Inferno. He is a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology Professor Robert Langdon is a fictional character created by the author Dan Brown for his novels: Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Inferno. He is a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology Professor Robert Langdon is a fictional character created by the author Dan Brown for his novels: Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Inferno.

He is a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology Dan Brown has 'no doubt' 'Inferno' will be a movie Dan Brown has 'no doubt' 'Inferno' will be a movie Dan Brown's 'Inferno' likely will become a movie, but 'The Lost Symbol' comes first. Post to Facebook Dan Brown has 'no doubt' 'Inferno' will be a movie Dan Brown's 'Inferno' likely will become a movie, but 'The Lost Symbol' comes first. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 6 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Dan Brown has 'no doubt' 'Inferno' will be a movie Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY Published 12:01 a.m. ET May 14, 2013 | Updated 12:26 p.m. ET May 14, 2013 Dan Brown's 'Inferno' likely will become a movie, but 'The Lost Symbol' comes first.

Tom Hanks starred as Robert Langdon in 'The Da Vinci Code,' as well as its sequel, 'Angels & Demons.' (Photo: Columbia Pictures) But first, work remain on movie of 'The Lost Symbol' 'Inferno' features clues based on Dante's 'Inferno' Tom Hanks played Robert Langdon in two Brown movies Dan Brown says he has no doubts that his latest thriller, Inferno (Doubleday), set in Florence and elsewhere in Europe, will be adapted as a movie. But first, he says, work remains on the film version of his last best seller, The Lost Symbol, which has gone through four screenplays, including one by Brown himself. "It's a very complicated plot," he says of Symbol, about a kidnapper in Washington, D.C., who uses Masonic symbols as clues. MORE: Clive James on Brown: 'I pity him deeply' In Inferno, the villain, threatening to unleash a plague, leaves clues from The Inferno, Dante's 14th-century poem about hell. Both novels feature Professor Robert Langdon, who was played by Tom Hanks in the films of Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

Sony, which own the film rights to Brown's Langdon novels, has yet to cast Symbol. Brown says he'd love to have Hanks return: "I love to watch him think. He's not an action hero. He's a thinking man's hero." 59 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 6 COMMENTEMAILMORE Read or Share this story: NEVER MISS OUT Life Be a pop culture maven. Get the news, reviews and the juiciest celebrity stories that keep you in the know, Monday-Friday. Robert Langdon - Gpedia, Your Encyclopedia Robert Langdon For the Australian scholar, see Robert Adrian Langdon . Professor Prof. Robert Langdon portrayed by Tom Hanks in Angels & Demons First appearance Professor of Religious Iconology and Symbology at Harvard University Title Relatives Howard Langdon (great-grandfather) Professor Robert Langdon is a fictional character created by author Dan Brown for his novels Angels & Demons (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2003), The Lost Symbol (2009), and Inferno (2013).

[1] He is a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology (a fictional field related to the study of historic symbols, which is not methodologically connected to the actual discipline of semiotics ). Tom Hanks portrays Langdon in the Robert Langdon film series , starting with the 2006 film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, reprising the role in the 2009 film adaptation of Angels & Demons, and again in the 2016 film adaptation of Inferno. [2] Contents 5 External links Character development Dan Brown created the character as a fictional alter ego of himself or "the man he wishes he could be". Brown himself was born June 22, 1964 in Exeter , New Hampshire , and the fictional Langdon is described as having been born on June 22, also in Exeter, and attending the same school as Brown did, Phillips Exeter Academy . Initially it is established that Langdon is a successful scholar who Brown named after John Langdon , [3] a professor of typography at Drexel University who is known for his creation of ambigrams .

An example of Langdon's ambigrams appeared on the cover of the first edition of Brown’s novel Angels & Demons, and other ambigrams featured throughout that novel were also designed by Langdon. On the acknowledgments page, Brown calls Langdon "one of the most ingenious and gifted artists alive … who rose brilliantly to my impossible challenge and created the ambigrams for this novel". John Langdon also created the logo for the fictional Depository Bank of Zurich, which appears in The Da Vinci Code film. In an interview, Brown said that Joseph Campbell was an inspiration for the character of Langdon: His writings on semiotics, comparative religion and mythology in particular "The Power of Myth" and "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" helped inspire the framework on which I built my character Robert Langdon.... I remember admiring Campbell’s matter-of-fact responses and wanting my own character Langdon to project that same respectful understanding when faced with complex spiritual issues.

— Dan Brown [4] Storyline Robert Langdon, born in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States, is described as looking like " Harrison Ford in Harris tweed ", [5] with his standard attire being a turtleneck , Harris Tweed jacket, khakis , and collegiate cordovan loafers , which he wears in all instances, from lectures to social events. [6] A frequently referred to accessory is his Mickey Mouse watch, a gift from his parents on his ninth birthday. [7] He drives an automatic Saab 900S . [8] [9] Langdon was a diver at Phillips Exeter Academy in prep school and played water polo at Princeton University where he went for college. He suffers from claustrophobia , as he fell into a well when he was 7 years old. His father died when he was 12, and his new mentor father-figure became Peter Solomon, [10] Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution . [11] Known for a brilliant problem-solving mind and his genius , Langdon has an eidetic memory . As professor at Harvard University , he teaches religious iconology and the fictional field of symbology.

As a hobby it is specifically mentioned that Langdon is a great swimmer and swam laps (50) daily, a "morning ritual," at Harvard's athletic facilities (hence the lap swimming scene in Angels & Demons). Langdon also mentions he was raised a Catholic , but that he will never understand God; in A&D, he mentions to the Camerlengo that faith is a gift he has yet to receive. In the books, the events of TDC follow those of A&D; this was reversed in the movies, where A&D is portrayed as a sequel to the previous movie. [12] Angels & Demons In Angels & Demons , Robert Langdon is called to CERN headquarters in Switzerland to find about the religious symbological implications of the death of CERN's finest and best-known physicist , Leonardo Vetra , a Catholic priest who has been branded with the Illuminati symbol. When he starts to investigate the murder, his obsession for the subject history comes into play.

Langdon is later joined in the investigation by Vittoria Vetra (Leonardo's adopted daughter) and they start their journey to the Vatican to unlock the mystery behind the Illuminati , an anti-Catholic secret society which, according to the plot, has deeply infiltrated many global institutions, political, economical and religious. Langdon and Vetra solve the mystery of the Illuminati by following the Path of Illumination [13] and in so doing explain the disappearances of four Cardinals during a papal conclave , the murder of Leonardo Vetra, and the theft of antimatter (a substance that can be used for mass destruction). At the end of the novel Langdon ends up having a relationship with Vittoria Vetra. In the last few sentences of Angels & Demons, Vittoria Vetra asks him if he has ever had a divine experience. When he replies in the negative, Vittoria slips off her terrycloth robe, saying, "You've never been to bed with a yoga master, have you?" Their relationship, however, is only referred to in The Da Vinci Code, mentioning the fact that Langdon had last seen Vittoria a year previously.

The Da Vinci Code In the beginning of 2003's The Da Vinci Code , Robert Langdon is in Paris to give a lecture on his work. Having made an appointment to meet with Jacques Saunière , the curator of the Louvre , he is startled to find the French police at his hotel room door. They inform him that Saunière has been murdered and they would like his immediate assistance at the Louvre to help them solve the crime. Unknown to Langdon, he is in fact the prime suspect in the murder and has been summoned to the scene of the crime so that the police may extract a confession from him. While he is in the Louvre, he meets Sophie Neveu , a young cryptologist from the DCPJ . When Langdon and Sophie get the chance to talk in private, he finds out that Jacques Saunière is her grandfather. Saunière instructs Sophie to 'find Robert Langdon', according to the message he left for her in the floor. Hence, Sophie believes he is innocent of her grandfather's murder.

He spends the rest of the novel dodging the police and trying to solve the mystery of an ancient secret society, the Priory of Sion , which was once headed by Leonardo da Vinci . At the end of the novel, Langdon uncovers the mystery behind Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail also called Sangreal, derived from either the Spanish "San Greal" (the Holy Grail), or the French "Sang real" (royal blood). He also seems to fall in love with Sophie Neveu at the end of the book, his "love of bachelorhood (having been) severely shook up". The Lost Symbol In The Lost Symbol , Robert Langdon has an adventure with the concepts of Freemasonry in Washington D.C. Tricked into visiting the nation's Capitol, Robert Langdon spends twelve hours racing through the monuments and buildings of the USA's forefathers, searching for the truth about the secret society of the Masons. Behind new doors lie secrets that promise to change the way people view science and politics, now threatened by Zachary Solomon, the renegade, estranged son of Robert Langdon's friend, Peter Solomon, who has himself been kidnapped by Zachary, now going by the name Mal'akh.

Robert Langdon is the last line of defense. With help from Katherine Solomon (Peter's younger sister), Warren Bellamy (the Architect of the Capitol) and Inoue Sato (the director of the CIA). Inferno In Inferno , Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with no memory of the events that led him to be in Italy. Soon he realizes that someone is trying to kill him. Langdon travels to Florence , Venice , and Istanbul with Doctor Sienna Brooks to prevent a biological attack by looking for a deadly virus that was planted by a client of a shadowy consulting group called The Consortium. In the course of this, Langdon must decipher clues employing allusions to the works of Sandro Botticelli and Dante Alighieri , the writer of Inferno , the first chapter of the epic poem The Divine Comedy , around which much of the plot revolves.

Bibliography Between The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Inferno, Langdon is said to have written six books: The Symbology of Secret Sects The Art of the Illuminati: Part 1 The Lost Language of Ideograms Religious Iconology Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine Christian Symbols in the Muslim World At that same point in the trilogy, Langdon is preparing the manuscript for his fifth book, to be titled Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine. It is later revealed in The Lost Symbol that Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine was published and created 'quite a scandal'. References ^ ^ ^ Cracking The Da Vinci Code | DiscoverMagazine.com Cracking The Da Vinci Code FROM THE JUNE 2004 ISSUE Cracking The Da Vinci Code The secret behind this best seller has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with numbers. 13 – 3 – 2 – 21 – 1 – 1 – 8 – 5 O, Draconian devil! Langdon read the message again and looked up at Fache.

“What the hell does this mean?” Harvard University Professor Robert Langdon, the hero of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, is initially baffled by the message, scrawled in invisible ink on the floor of the Louvre in Paris by a dying man with a passion for secret codes. Langdon, whose specialty is religious symbology, soon figures out that the words are a pair of anagrams for “Leonardo da Vinci” and “the Mona Lisa.” But what about those numbers? They may puzzle Langdon for a while, but any mathematician will recognize them at once. They are the first eight members of the Fibonacci sequence, written in a jumbled order. A young French code breaker named Sophie Neveu makes the same observation and explains that the Fibonacci sequence is one of the most famous mathematical progressions in history. Having cracked the first two of what turn out to be a whole sequence of secret codes, Langdon and Neveu find themselves on a fast-paced adventure that eventually threatens their lives as they uncover a sinister conspiracy within the Roman Catholic Church. It’s a fantastic plot that intertwines art history and 2,000 years of church politics. But what of the mathematical clue?

In Chapter 20, Langdon recalls a lecture he gave at Harvard on the Fibonacci numbers and the closely related constant that is his favorite number: the golden ratio, also known as the divine proportion. In his lecture, Langdon makes a series of amazing claims about the prevalence of the divine proportion in life and nature, and I suspect many readers tacitly assume most of it is fiction. That is not the case. As with the novel’s many religious, historical, and art references, some of the things Langdon says about the golden ratio are false—or at least stretch the truth. But some are correct. The divine proportion—which is sometimes represented by the Greek letter φ, generally written in English as phi and pronounced “fie”—is one of nature’s own mysteries, a mystery that was fully unraveled only 10 years ago. The quest to uncover the φ Code, as I’ll call it, provides a story with almost as many surprising turns, puzzles, and false leads as The Da Vinci Code. The story of φ begins, like so many mathematical tales, in ancient Greece. The Greeks, with their love for symmetry and geometric order, searched for what they felt was the most pleasing rectangle.

Believing that the purest and most aesthetically pleasing form of thought was mathematics, they used math to come up with an answer (see “How the Greeks Found φ,” page 69). When Langdon begins his Harvard lecture on the divine proportion, he begins by writing the number 1.618 on the chalkboard. Strictly speaking, this is not exactly the golden ratio. The true value is given by the formula φ = 1 + √5 2 Unlike authors of best-selling novels, when Mother Nature writes a mystery, she often keeps us from finding the whole answer. Like the ancient Hebrews who could never know the true name of God, we will never know the true numerical value of φ. If you try to use the formula to calculate its value, you will discover that the decimals keep on appearing. The process never stops. In mathematician’s language, the number φ is “irrational.” As an irrational number, φ is like that other mathematical constant π, whose infinite decimal expansion begins 3.14159 . . . Of the two numbers, mathematicians would say that π is more important than φ.

But I have a lot of sympathy with the math major in Langdon’s class who raises his hand and says, “Phi is one H of a lot cooler than pi.” π is hot, but φ is cool. The story continues. Having found their golden ratio, the Greeks incorporated it into their architecture, ensuring that wherever they went in their cities, their eyes would be met with glorious rectangles. This may be true, but modern historians question the claim. Certainly, the oft-repeated assertion that the Parthenon is based on the golden ratio is not supported by actual measurements. In fact, the entire story about the Greeks and the golden ratio seems to be without foundation. The one thing we know for sure is that Euclid, in his famous textbook Elements, written around 300 B.C., showed how to calculate its value. But he seemed more interested in the mathematics than the architecture, for he gave the golden ratio a decidedly unromantic label: extreme and mean ratio. The term divine proportion first appeared with the publication of the three-volume work of that name by the 15th-century mathematician Luca Pacioli.

Calling φ “golden” is even more recent: In 1835 it appeared in a book written by the mathematician Martin Ohm. Like most successful thrillers, The Da Vinci Code switches between different plotlines, and so does our φ Code. For the next episode, fast-forward from ancient Greece to Pisa, Italy, in 1202. Young Italian mathematician Leonardo Pisano (Leonardo of Pisa) has just completed a book called Liber Abaci, or Book of Calculation. Although there is no way Leonardo can possibly know it, his book is going to change the course of human civilization by bringing to the West the method of writing numbers and doing arithmetic that we use today. That system, completed in India 500 years earlier, was much more efficient than the Roman numerals in use at the time. The new number system eventually provided the basis for the European emergence of modern science and engineering in the 16th and 17th centuries. One of the many exercises in Liber Abaci is a whimsical problem about rabbits: A man puts a pair of baby rabbits into an enclosed garden.

Assuming that each pair of rabbits in the garden bears a new pair every month, which from the second month on itself becomes productive, how many pairs of rabbits will there be in the garden after one year? It is not hard to see that the number of pairs of rabbits in the garden in each month is given by the numbers in the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, . . . , which is the Fibonacci sequence Langdon saw scrawled in scrambled form on the floor of the Louvre. Fibonacci is the name that mathematical historians later gave to Leonardo Pisano. It is derived from the Latin filius Bonacci, or “son of Bonacci”—Leonardo being a member of the Bonacci family. (Now there are two Leonardos in our story: Leonardo da Vinci and Leonardo da Pisa.) The general rule that produces the Fibonacci sequence is that each number after the second 1 is equal to the sum of the two previous numbers. So 1+1 = 2, 1+2 = 3, 2+3 = 5, and so on.

This corresponds to the fact that each month, the new rabbit births in Liber Abaci consist of one pair born to each of the newly adult pairs plus one pair for each of the earlier adult pairs. Once you have figured out how to generate the sequence, you can solve the rabbit problem by simply reading off the 12th number: 144 pairs. As people solved the problem in Leonardo’s book, they began to notice that this frivolous sequence of numbers occurred so frequently in nature that not even the bungling French police captain Bezu Fache in The Da Vinci Code could fail to become suspicious. Here are some exhibits suggesting that the Fibonacci sequence is hiding a secret of nature: Exhibit A: If you count the number of petals in most flowers, you will find that the total is a Fibonacci number. For instance, an iris has 3 petals, a buttercup 5, a delphinium 8, a ragwort 13, an aster 21, a daisy 13, 21, or 34, and Michaelmas daisies 55 or 89 petals.

Exhibit B: If you look at a sunflower, you will see a beautiful pattern of two spirals, one running clockwise and the other counterclockwise. Count those spirals and for most sunflowers you will find that there are 21 or 34 running clockwise and 34 or 55 running counterclockwise, respectively—all Fibonacci numbers. Other flowers exhibit the same phenomenon; the purple coneflower is a good example. Similarly, pinecones often have 5 clockwise spirals and 8 counterclockwise spirals, and the pineapple frequently has 8 clockwise spirals and 13 counterclockwise spirals. Exhibit C: Take a close look at the way leaves are located on the stems of trees and plants. The leaves are located on a spiral path that winds around the stem. Starting at one leaf, count how many complete turns of the spiral it takes before you find a second leaf directly above the first. Let p be that number. Also count the number of leaves you encounter (excluding the first one itself). That gives you another number, q. The quotient p/q is called the divergence of the plant. Here’s the surprising part.

If you calculate the divergence for different species of plants, you find that both the numerator and the denominator are usually Fibonacci numbers. In particular, 1/2, 1/3, 2/5, 3/8, 5/13, and 8/21 are all common divergence ratios. For instance, common grasses have a divergence of 1/2, sedges have 1/3, many fruit trees (including the apple) have a divergence of 2/5, plantains have 3/8, and leeks come in at 5/13. Clearly, there is something going on here. Now, as in any good mystery novel, it’s time to bring the two threads together, to show how the ancient Greeks’ golden ratio and the 13th-century Fibonacci sequence are connected. Take the Fibonacci sequence and divide each number into the one that follows it. Here is what you get: 1/1 = 1; 2/1 = 2; 3/2 = 1.5; 5/3 = 1.666 . . .

; 8/5 = 1.6; 13/8 = 1.625; 21/13 = 1.615 . . . ; 34/21 = 1.619 . . . ; 55/34 = 1.6176 . . . ; 89/55 = 1.6181 . . . Wait a minute. 1, 1.6, 1.61, 1.618. This is starting to look like the golden ratio. This is no accident. Mathematicians have proved conclusively that, like two shy lovers in a Hollywood romance, the Fibonacci ratios get slowly closer to φ and finally kiss at infinity. Now that our two stories have merged, it’s time to unravel the mystery. What is so special about the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio? A Golden Ratio Quiz There are so many false claims made about the golden ratio, and so many surprising truths, that it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Here are some of the most common statements you will find in the literature, besides the ones mentioned in the article.

See how many you can correctly guess are true or false. (True means known for sure to be true; falsemeans there is insufficient evidence to justify the statement.) 1. The Egyptian pyramids were constructed using the golden ratio. 2. Some Egyptian tombs were constructed using the golden ratio. 3. Some stone tablets show the Babylonians knew about the golden ratio. 4. The cubists based much of their work on the golden ratio. 5. The famous French architect Le Corbusier advocated and used the golden ratio in architecture. 6. The Secretariat building at the United Nations headquarters in New York comprises a stack of three golden rectangles. 7. Some Gregorian chants are based on the golden ratio. 8. Mozart used the golden ratio in some of his music. 9. Béla Bartók used the golden ratio in some of his music. 10. When a falcon attacks its prey, it swoops in along a path that is mathematically related to the golden ratio. 11. The poet Virgil based the meter of his poem The Aeneid on the golden ratio. 12.

Some 12th-century Sanskrit poems have a meter based on the Fibonacci sequence (and hence are related to the golden ratio). 13. The golden ratio occurs in certain crystal structures. 14. There is a Fibonacci number with exactly 666 digits. 15. If you square any Fibonacci number, the answer will differ by at most 1 from the product of the two adjacent Fibonacci numbers. Answers: 1. F 2. F 3. F 4. F 5. T 6. F 7. F 8. F 9. F 10. T 11. F 12. T 13. T 14. T 15. T First of all, you need to separate the truly significant facts from the accidental or the spurious. Whether or not the ancient Greeks felt that the golden ratio was the most perfect proportion for a rectangle, many modern humans do not. Numerous tests have failed to show that most observers prefer any one rectangle, and preferences are easily influenced by other factors. Another spurious appearance of the golden ratio is one that appears in The Da Vinci Code.

In his Harvard lecture, Langdon says: “Measure the distance from the tip of your head to the floor. Then divide that by the distance from your belly button to the floor. Guess what number you get.” His answer is φ. Why is this spurious? First of all, you won’t get exactly the number φ. You never can; remember, f is irrational. But in the case of measuring the human body, there is a lot of variation. True, the answers will always be fairly close to 1.6. But there’s nothing special about 1.6. Why not say the answer is 1.603? Or 1.698? More to the point, there’s no reason to divide the human body by the navel. If you spend a half hour or so taking measurements of various parts of the body and tabulating the results, you will find any number of pairs of figures whose ratio is close to 1.6—or 1.2. Or 1.8. Some artists have flirted with φ, but as with the Greeks and their architecture, you have to be careful to distinguish fact from fiction.

The oft-repeated claims (which appear again in The Da Vinci Code) that Leonardo da Vinci believed the golden ratio is the ratio of the height of a perfect human face to its width and that he used φ in his drawing Vitruvian Man, which has a prominent role in the early part of Brown’s novel, seem to be without foundation. So, too, are the equally common claims that Sandro Botticelli used φ to proportion Venus in his famous painting The Birth of Venus and that Georges Seurat based his painting The Side Show on φ. Painters who definitely did make use of φ include the 20th-century artists Louis-Paul-Henri Sérusier, Juan Gris, Gino Severini, and Salvador Dalí; but all four seem to have been experimenting with φ for its own sake rather than for some intrinsic aesthetic reason. The data on flowers and plants, however—Exhibits A, B, and C—are another matter. Such frequent appearances of Fibonacci numbers in nature cannot be an accident. Although many of those observations were made a hundred years or more ago, it was only in the 1990s that mathematicians and scientists were finally able to figure out what is going on.

It’s a question of nature being efficient. To achieve maximum efficiency, flower heads and plant leaves grow in a spiral fashion governed by the golden ratio. Since φ is an irrational number and the number of petals, spirals, or stamens in any plant or flower has to be a whole number, nature “rounds off” to the nearest whole number. Because of the kissing property, this will be a Fibonacci number. That still leaves two basic questions. Why spirals? And why spirals that follow the golden ratio? In the case of leaves, each new leaf is added so that it least obscures the leaves already below and is least obscured by any future leaves above it. Hence the leaves spiral around the stem. For seeds in the seed head of a plant, nature wants to pack in as many as possible. The way to do this is to add new seeds in a spiral fashion. As early as the 18th century, mathematicians suspected that a single angle of rotation can make all this happen in the most efficient way: the golden ratio (measured in the number of turns per leaf, and so on). However, it took a long time to put together all the pieces of the puzzle.

The final step came just over a decade ago, in 1993, with some experimental work by two French scientists, Stéphane Douady and Yves Couder. Today, then, we have a good scientific explanation of why φ plays such a crucial role in plant growth: It’s the ratio that gives the optimal solution to growth equations. The mathematical explanation is that of all irrational numbers, φ is, in a very precise, technical sense, the furthest from being representable as a fraction. And so the story ends. Or does it? In addition to bringing the plot to a satisfactory conclusion, a good novel should leave you wondering about some aspect of life. For The Da Vinci Code, the lingering questions left behind are how much of traditional church teachings are fact, and why people are so willing to accept things that are probably not true. Our φ Code ends with two similar questions. The literature on the golden ratio is full of claims that have little or no basis in fact and in some cases are known to be false. Why is it that these myths live on? And why are we so eager to believe everything we are told?

How the Greeks Found Φ In his book Elements, Euclid shows how to divide a straight line running between points A and B into two by a point P so that the ratio of the longer segment (AP) to the shorter one (PB) is exactly the same as the ratio of the entire line (AB) to the longer segment (AP). A P B AB = AP AP PB It doesn’t matter if the actual length of the line AB is one foot, one meter, or one shoelace length. It’s the ratios that count. So let’s say the length of PB is 1 to simplify our discussion. With PB = 1, the length (x) of AP is what we now call the golden ratio. To calculate its value, we have to do a bit of algebra. The length of AB will be x + 1. This means we can rewrite the above geometric identity as the equation x + 1 = x x 1 This can be rearranged by cross multiplying to give 1 (x + 1) = (x) x, which becomes x + 1 = x2. We can then rearrange this to give the quadratic equation x2 – x – 1 = 0.

If you think back to your high school algebra class, quadratic equations have two solutions, and there is a formula to give you those solutions. When you apply this formula to the above equation, you get the two answers: x = 1 + √5 and x = 1 - √5 2 2 Using a calculator to three decimal places, the answers are 1.618 and –0.618, respectively. The golden ratio, φ, is the first of these two solutions—the positive number. You start to suspect there’s more to φ than meets the eye when you ask what happened to the negative solution to the quadratic equation, –0.618, which also goes on forever as a decimal. Apart from the minus sign, it looks the same as the first solution (φ) but with the initial 1 missing. But that turns out to be a false lead. Calculate a few more decimals and you will see that the two numbers are not the same. But if you dig a bit deeper still, you will find a surprising identity. The negative solution is equal to 1 – 1/φ. Hmmm. That doesn’t usually happen with quadratic equations. —K. D.

Dan Brown: 'no rush for next Langdon' | The Bookseller Home News Dan Brown: 'no rush for next Langdon' Dan Brown: 'no rush for next Langdon' Published November 4, 2014 by Lisa Campbell Share Share on Linkedin Dan Brown’s next novel will feature character Robert Langdon, but the bestselling author has warned fans it may be some time before the manuscript is ready. The American thriller writer met a group of trade press journalists in Sharjah, UAE, where he is attending the Sharjah International Book Fair 2014 as the guest of honour. While Brown revealed his next novel would definitely feature symbology professor Robert Langdon, he would not be drawn on where the story would be set. And when asked when his next novel might be completed, Brown said: “I have learned never to predict. I am in the research phase. Some books take two to three years, Lost Symbol took quite a while, so I don’t predict and I keep researching until I know what I need to know until I know enough to write the book and that takes some time.” However, Brown said that did not mean he was getting short on ideas.

When asked if he still had 12 books to write in mind as he had previously stated, he said: " That number has probably grown. Every book I write spins off ideas for another three or four so there is no shortage of material for Robert Langdon in this world. Symbols, religion, conspiracy, all of that is a really rich world to explore." He added: "I wish I wrote these books faster, I think a lot of people do, but I don’t. They take an enormous amount of research and for every one page you read in the book I have written 10 that are thrown out so I don’t know how many books I have time to write." The author praised his publisher Doubleday for not putting too much pressure on him to complete manuscripts in haste, because it is more concerned with maintaining his readership over a long period of time with quality work. Following the release of The Da Vinci Code, which catapulted Brown to fame, he said Doubleday was “amazing”, “incredibly supportive” and applied “no pressure”.

“After The Da Vinci Code, my publishers said, ‘Look, your life is changing, you’re making movies now, there is all this other stuff going on, we get it. The most important thing to do is to write a great follow-up. We don’t want something that you dashed off that we can publish in six months. We want you to be around in 10 years. We want people to say I liked The Da Vinci Code and we like the next book and the next book after that.’ So I know that I could have been under a lot of pressure and I have enormous respect for the foresight and the support I have had from my publisher,” he said. While Brown warned “not to read anything into” the fact he was visiting the UAE and then India next week, as an indication of where his next novel would be set, he admitted he was keen to gain a greater knowledge of Arab countries. “With the exception of Istanbul to research Inferno, I had not been to the Arab world,” he said.

“I had spent so much time in Europe researching Christianity, Christian art, Western culture, and I felt almost on a personal level that I needed to start stepping out into the greater world and start to learn other things and so that was part of it.” He added: “Certainly wanting to meet some of my Arab readership was also part of it.” After a book signing event at SIBF tomorrow night (5th November), Brown will next travel onto India after to give the Penguin Annual Speech in New Delhi and then Mumbai. Lean in 15: The Sustain Plan by Joe Wicks Tom Kerridge's Dopamine Diet: My Low Carb, High Flavour, Stay Happy Way to Lose Weight by Tom Kerridge Lean in 15: The Shape Plan by Joe Wicks The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled by Ruby Wax Inferno | Knopf Doubleday By Dan Brown About This Guide The introduction, discussion questions, and suggested further reading that follow are designed to enhance your group’s discussion of Inferno, the thrilling new novel by Dan Brown, internationally bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol.

WARNING—THIS GUIDE CONTAINS SPOILERS About This Book In Inferno, Dan Brown once again offers readers the same heady mix of history, art, symbols, and high-wire tension that catapulted The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol into international blockbusters. This time the stakes are even higher, as Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon must decode the mystery surrounding a virus that has the power to alter the course of human civilization—or possibly end it. As the novel begins, Langdon wakes up from a terrifying nightmare in a hospital in Florence, Italy. He doesn’t know how he got there or why he’s even in Florence. He’s told he’s been shot and suffered a slight head wound that has resulted in short-term amnesia. But as he learns more about what has happened to him, amnesia turns out to be the least of his problems. When a leather-clad assassin storms the hospital, Langdon is forced to flee with the beautiful doctor Sienna Brooks. Running from the assassin as well as the police, Langdon and Brooks are drawn into a devious plot that centers on one of the world’s most mysterious literary masterpieces, Dante’s Inferno.

Langdon find himself up against an imminent global catastrophe. Renowned biochemist Bertrand Zobrist has created a virus that will be released in just twenty-four hours and infect the entire human species. Zobrist is a Dante fanatic and he has used references to Dante’s great poem as clues to the location and purpose of the virus. Langdon draws upon his own extensive knowledge of Dante’s poem and of Florence’s splendid art and architecture to decipher Zobrist’s riddle. But will he and Sienna be able to find the virus in time? Zobrist is motivated by the looming threat of unchecked population growth, convinced that the human species will not survive unless there is another mass extinction event on a scale of the Black Plague, which wiped out, in gruesome fashion, one third of Europe’s thirteenth century population. Zobrist sees himself as a savior, despised in his own time, shunned by the scientific establishment, and hunted by Dr. Elizabeth Sinskey of the World Health Organization, but certain that he will be thanked by future generations. Zobrist is determined and extremely clever.

The clues he leaves are maddeningly complex, and Langdon must draw upon all his intelligence, erudition, and ingenuity to decipher them. Unraveling that mystery takes Langdon far beyond Italy into an ominous underworld, where a “chthonic monster” waits to forever change the course of human history. What makes Inferno so compelling is not only Dan Brown’s masterful ability to spin a spellbinding tale but his skill at weaving a complex and pressing social issue into the fabric of his narrative. The crucial problem of overpopulation, a problem that does indeed pose a threat to human survival, adds a deeper moral and ethical dimension to a book that offers all the page-turning pleasures readers of Dan Brown have come to expect. Question & Answer 1. WARNING: THESE QUESTIONS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL What features does Inferno share with Dan Brown’s other Robert Langdon novels: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol? In what ways is it different from those earlier works? 2. Why has Brown used these lines from Dante as an epigraph to Inferno: “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis”?

How does that statement illuminate the novel? What is the particular danger of maintaining moral neutrality in Inferno? 3. What accounts for the frenetic narrative pace of the novel? How does Dan Brown use chapter endings to create suspense? What other devices create a narrative tension that pulls the reader along? 4. What are some of the most surprising twists and turns in Inferno? 5. What role does the setting play in Inferno? In what ways are Florence, Venice, and Istanbul integral to the plot of the novel? 6. The brilliant biochemist Bertrand Zobrist asserts some unsettling ideas. He argues that the Black Plague, which killed one-third of Europe’s population, was one of the best things that ever happened to humanity and ushered in the Renaissance. He also believes that the human race won’t survive unless we have another mass extinction event, similar in scale to the Black Plague. In his confrontation with Dr. Sinskey, he rails, “We are on the brink of the end of humanity, and our world leaders are sitting in boardrooms commissioning studies on solar power, recycling, and hybrid automobiles.... Ozone depletion, lack of water, and pollution are not the disease—they are the symptoms.

The disease is overpopulation” [p. 139]. Is Zobrist right about these issues? Is his solution the lesser of two evils or is it too morally repugnant even to consider? 7. How does Langdon use his knowledge of literature, art, and symbology to decipher the clues that lead him to the location of Zobrist’s virus? In what ways is Dante’s great poem, The Inferno, central to the novel? 8. The Consortium, which allows Bertrand Zobrist to do his work on the virus undetected, has a philosophy of "Provide the service. Ask no questions. Pass no judgment" [p. 75]. Is that a dangerous philosophy, and if so, why? Why does the Provost, by the end of the novel, realize that "For the first time in his life, ignorance no longer felt like the moral high ground"? [p. 444]. How disconcerting is it to learn that the Consortium really does exist, though under a different name, with offices in seven countries? 9. Sienna Brooks is perhaps the most complex character in the novel. What kind of woman is she? How has her past influenced who she has become?

How does she change over the course of the novel? Why does she feel that she has finally found a purpose at the end of the book? 10. In what ways do issues of trust and betrayal play out in Inferno? 11. Sienna explains one of the fundamental tenets of Transhumanism: "We as humans have a moral obligation to participate in our evolutionary process . . . to use our technology to advance the species, to create better humans-healthier, stronger, with higher-functioning brains. Everything will soon be possible" [p. 453]. Do an internet search on "Transhumanism" and discuss/debate the motivations and philosophical assumptions of the movement. What does Dan Brown's use of a real-life contemporary movement like Transhumanism add to Inferno? Does Transhumanism offer valid solutions to some of the essential problems that confront the human species? 12. In an emotional speech to Dr. Sinskey, Sienna says, "Bertrand died all alone because people like yourself refused to open your minds enough even to admit that our catastrophic circumstances might actually require an uncomfortable solution. All Bertrand ever did was speak the truth . . . and for that, he was ostracized" [p.

449]. Does Bertrand go from villain to hero by the end of the book? Do the ends (saving the human species) justify the means (releasing a virus that will dramatically limit population growth) in this case? 13. Why doesn't Robert Langdon give up on Sienna, even after he realizes what her motives are? 14. At the end of the novel, Dr. Sinskey invites Sienna to accompany her to a conference where they will address world leaders about the virus Bertrand Zobrist has released and discuss the issue of population control. Is there a significance to having two women, rather than two men, assume this role? About This Author Dan Brown is the author of The Da Vinci Code, one of the most widely read novels of all time, and the international bestsellers The Lost Symbol, Angels & Demons, Deception Point, and Digital Fortress. He lives in New England with his wife.

Suggested Reading Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, The Lost Symbol; Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy; Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose; Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian; Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity; Donna Tartt, The Secret History. Knopf Doubleday Info The Best-Selling Books Of The Year, According to Amazon The Best-Selling Books Of The Year, According to Amazon Paige Cooperstein Courtesy of DanBrown.com Dan Brown's "Inferno" is the best-selling adult book for 2013. 2013 was a year of mystery and thrills, at least according to Amazon's list of best-selling adult books for the year . While contemporary romance dominated last year's list with the likes of "50 Shades of Grey," this year's top spot went to Dan Brown's thriller "Inferno." It was also a very popular book at the New York Public Library earlier this fall. "And The Mountains Echoed" by Khaled Hosseini and J.K.

Rowling's crime thriller, "The Cuckoo's Calling," written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, rounded out the top three. Amazon calculated its list of best-selling books by taking into account sales of print and Kindle edition books that were published in 2013. Check out the best-selling books below: 1. " Inferno " by Dan Brown: Brown's infamous hero Robert Langdon (from "The Da Vinci Code") heads once more into Italy. Langdon's latest mystery takes its cue from Dante's epic poem in the "Divine Comedy." 2. " And the Mountains Echoed " by Khaled Hosseini: Hosseini follows up "The Kite Runner" with another story set in Kabul, Afghanistan. His latest novel begins with a father telling his two young children a folktale. The story spans several decades and continents following the family's trials and tribulations from there. 3. " The Cuckoo’s Calling " by Robert Galbraith: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a super model's suicide in this classically-styled mystery written by J.K. Rowling under a pseudonym. 4.

" The Husband’s Secret " by Liane Moriarty: Cecilia Fitzpatrick discovers a letter in which her husband confesses a dark secret that could ruin the life she built. She was supposed to receive the letter after he died, but stumbles across it while he is still very much alive. 5. " Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead " by Sheryl Sandberg: Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, shares her leadership secrets in a book that combines personal anecdotes, hard data and research. She aims to understand the bias against women in leadership positions and offer advice for women in the workplace and daily life. 6. " The Hit " by David Baldacci: Will Robie, a highly trained assassin, eliminates enemies of state for the U.S. government. When Jessica Reel, another assassin in the agency, goes rogue, Robie must stop her. 7. " Sycamore Row " by John Grisham: Jake Brigance, from Grisham's breakout hit "A Time to Kill" returns to Ford County to try a case that brings up old racial tensions.

Before hanging himself from a Sycamore tree, Seth Hubbard leaves a handwritten will for his property that drags his adult children and his black maid into a conflict that spans generations. 8. " Entwined with You " by Sylvia Day: Book three of the Crossfire series finds Gideon and Eva with even more alone time than they've had in previous installments of this torrid romance. 9. " Never Go Back " by Lee Child: Child's latest novel in his Jack Reacher series follows the former military cop on a mission to find his missing commanding officer, Major Susan Turner, and clear his own name in the process. 10. " The Storyteller " by Jodi Picoult: Sage Singer is a baker trying to get over the death of her mother. Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group with his own demons, begins stopping by the Sage's bakery. They strike up an unlikely friendship. 11.

" Alex Cross, Run " by James Patterson: Detective Alex Cross has a lot on his plate: A plastic surgeon, Cross got arrested for sleeping with teenage girls is out of jail, and this time with a new face, a young woman who recently gave birth is found murdered and the baby is missing, plus another serial killer is rumored to be on the loose in D.C. 12. " Doctor Sleep " by Stephen King: In his latest supernatural mystery, King invents the True Knot, a group of quasi-immortal RV-travelers who feed off the steam produced when children with "the shining" are slowly tortured to death. 13. " 12th of Never " by James Patterson: Part of the Women's Murder Club series, Patterson's latest mystery picks up when Lindsay Boxer's daughter is born. But her bliss is quickly broken when San Francisco gets hit with multiple killings. Read More 14. " Damaged: The Ferro Family " by H.M. Ward: In this romance, Peter is a college professor and Sydney, his teaching assistant, is running from her past and afraid to get too close to another person. Still, the two have unmistakable chemistry. 15.

" Killing Jesus: A History " by Bill O’Reilly: Television and radio magnate Bill O'Reilly chronicles the political and historical events that led to the murder of Jesus of Nazareth. Historian Martin Dugard helped O'Reilly write it. 16. " Second Honeymoon " by James Patterson: A string of tragic accidents that left one newlywed couple dead in a sauna and another killed on a flight to Rome leads FBI Agent John O'Hara to suspect a serial killer is on the loose, and he's targeting honeymooners. 17. " Whiskey Beach " by Nora Roberts: Eli Landon is a Boston lawyer under investigation for the murder of his soon-to-be ex-wife. He takes refuge at his family's estate on Whiskey Beach. While there, he meets Abra Walsh, the local jack-of-all-trades, and things get complicated. 18. " The Billionaire’s Obsession: The Complete Collection " by J.S. Scott: This collection of 4 romance novels follows b illionaire Simon Hudson as he woos Kara Foster with an offer she can't refuse. 19. " Surrender Your Love " by J.C.

Reed: Brooke Stewart is a New York City realtor who doesn't do relationships, but that maxim gets tested when she meets Jett Mayfield, a green-eyed millionaire who isn't used to taking no for an answer. 20. " Six Years " by Harlan Coben: Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man six years ago. But when Jake comes across the obituary for Natalie's husband Todd, he can't stay away any longer. More From Business Insider

Question: Professor Robert Langdon is the hero in which best-selling novel?
Answer: Da Vinci Code