Construction 1. Given two distinct points A,B, to obtain the point P of the line

Abstract. We present a compass-only construction of the point dividing a given segment in the golden ratio. As a corollary, we obtain a very simple construction of a regular pentagon inscribed in a given circle. Various constructions of the golden section and of the regular pentagon have already appeared in this journal. In particular, in [1, 2], Kurt Hofstetter offers very interesting compass-only constructions that require only a small number of circles. However, the constructed divided segment and pentagon come into sight as fortu-nate outcomes of the completed figures and are not subject to any prior constraint. As a result, these constructions do not adjust easily to the usual cases when the segment to be divided or the circumcircle of the pentagon are given at the start. The purpose of this note is to propose direct, simple compass-only constructions adapted to such situations