History
The name plastic number (het plastische getal in Dutch) was given to this number in 1928 by Dom Hans van der Laan. Unlike the names of the golden ratio and silver ratio, the word plastic was not intended to refer to a specific substance, but rather in its adjectival sense, meaning something that can be given a three-dimensional shape. This is because, according to Padovan, the characteristic ratios of the number, 3/4 and 1/7, relate to the limits of human perception in relating one physical size to another.
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