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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Going Off-Grid” Down in the Dirt, v169 (the Mar. 2020 Issue)  Order the paperback book: 
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Order this Janet Kuypers writing from her poetry book Every Event of the Year (Volume One: January-June) Order this 200+ page 7½" x 9¼" ISBN# book today of select poetry for holidays and events spanning the first half of the calendar year
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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Foundations the Down in the Dirt Feb.-April 2020 issues collection book
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| Value of π
Janet Kuypers 3/14/15 i mean /19 Why is this number with far too many decimal places so important anyway? They say the area of a circle is π r2, but the Bible will tell you that must mean that π is three. No decimals. Just three, based on the number of cubits to make it around a circle. (Actually, a rabbi later argued that the Bible could be correct if in the Bible they measured the inside of a pot to define the circle, versus the outside. What an ingenious way to work around that biblical inconsistency...) I don’t know if the number of decimal digits is always that important, because back in 1969, the number three point one four one six got man got the moon, without all those extra decimal digits. I mean, in the transcripts of the famed OJ Simpson trial, you can find arguments between the judge and an FBI agent about the actual value of π. And speaking of the Simpson trial, to quote Petr Beckmann in his 1970 book A History of π: “Three centuries ago Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, co-inventor of the calculus and co-discoverer of the first infinite series for π, dreamt of the day when courts would be abolished, because disputes would be settled mathematically by solving impartial equations that would show who was right and who was wrong.” Beautiful idea, isn’t it, using math to explain the Universe, as physicists have been doing for years (like Albert Einstein, known for other equations, who was born on 3.14 of 1879). Apparently π is that much of a big deal that you can find π in the measurements of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Yeah, the vertical height of the pyramid and the perimeter of its base have the same relationship the radius of a circle has to its circumference. And really, this π number (Archimedes’ constant) which is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, is such an irrational number, since it can’t be defined as a fraction (and probably why I’ll never remember enough of the numbers in π in the first place, and why, when astronauts didn’t have massive computers or extensive calculators in the 1960s that they settled for three point one four one six for π). Historically the number of π has been used as early as 4,000 BC, and at each time in history, from Egypt to China to India to Persia, only an approximation was used. Because this number of non-repeating non-ordered numbers to infinity is a number we have all wanted to understand throughout history. I mean, people obsessed with π can show you your birthdate in π (http://www.facade.com/legacy/amiinpi/). I don’t know, to some π may be a tasty dessert treat. But when it comes to math, everyone, for one reason or another, is fascinated by this infinite series because really, it amazes us that one specifically weird number, this one so transcendental number, can mean so much to so many people in so many ways throughout the world. |
