The following simple little construction was 'discovered' whilst designing my bedroom. Yes, I know it's unlikely, but yet again it goes to show how these things just appear out of the blue...

I had decided upon an elliptical shape for the room, with the spaces thus created between the ellipse and the rectangular outer walls being used for storage. The proportions of the ellipse were the same as the Golden Rectangle - 1.618034 - phi.

I had also previously been using the proportions of the Great Pyramid (Slope-51.83 degrees) to provide me with a ceiling height, so it was inevitable that these two shapes would be overlaid - with the base of the Triangle aligned with the horizontal axis of the ellipse.

In order to check the same proportions at right angles, the ellipse was rotated by 90 degrees and I 'discovered' that the slopes of the pyramd were tangential to the now vertical ellipse. See below.


Is it possible that the proportions of the Great Pyramid were determined in this way - or is this just another geometrical coincidence?

Or are my figures quoted above in any way suspect?

 

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