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Tossing Pebbles in the Stream

This blog is my place to sit and toss pebbles into the stream. The stream of Life relentlessly passing before us. We can affect it little. For the most part I just watch it passing and follow the flow. Occasionally, I need to comment on its passing, tossing a pebble at it to enjoy the ripple affect upon Life's surface.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Π Day 3.14

Today is International Pi Day. (It almost got by me.) Pi is a mathematical constant that makes possible the calculation of the area of a circle, the volumn of a cylindar , the volumn and suface of a sphere and their derivatives. How life and would be so different without Pi.

The famous Greek mathematician, Archimedes is credited with discovering Pi.

Pi is an approximation. Here is Pi worked out to 2000 places after the decimal point.


3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798
60943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132
00056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872
14684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235
42019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960
51870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859
50244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881
71010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303
59825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778
18577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989
38095257201065485863278865936153381827968230301952
03530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151
55748572424541506959508295331168617278558890750983
81754637464939319255060400927701671139009848824012
85836160356370766010471018194295559619894676783744
94482553797747268471040475346462080466842590694912
93313677028989152104752162056966024058038150193511
25338243003558764024749647326391419927260426992279
67823547816360093417216412199245863150302861829745
55706749838505494588586926995690927210797509302955
32116534498720275596023648066549911988183479775356
63698074265425278625518184175746728909777727938000
81647060016145249192173217214772350141441973568548
16136115735255213347574184946843852332390739414333
45477624168625189835694855620992192221842725502542
56887671790494601653466804988627232791786085784383
82796797668145410095388378636095068006422512520511
73929848960841284886269456042419652850222106611863
06744278622039194945047123713786960956364371917287
46776465757396241389086583264599581339047802759010


If you do not believe me, work it out for yourself! It seem it is a number that is never exact no matter how far you calculate it. Those that care about such things are forever using computers to try to complete the calculations.

This is a good day to think about this mathematical constant 3.14 or 22/7ths and how usefull it is. It is a good day to talk to children about the wonders and mysteries of numbers and mathematics.

Think also of it as a religious sign. Those who think the Universe is one of order and a design with a possible Designer (God) might point to this as a "proof" that we live in an orderly Universe. The mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, a devote Hindu , espresss it this way, "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents God." This is what is know as the argument from design for the existence of God. I am unconvinced but it has been put forward through the ages. That does not mean I do not find mathematical order in the Universe excitingly mysterious.

I am fascinated with "magical" numbers. The one that I believe shapes our mind, or is an aspect of our mind that shapes our reality, is 3. How often do we see things in threes. There is the Christian Trinity, Marxist, dialectic, Freudian, Id, ego, superego. It seems we most easily make sense of our world or remember things most easily if we group them in threes. You may have your favourite number. Three works for me and my analytical mind.

Happy Pi Day!

posted by Tossing Pebbles in the Stream @ 4:29 p.m.

4 Comments:

At 7:20 p.m., Blogger KGMom said...

I knew it--I too am fascinated with numbers, magic--well, not sure about that term, but numbers and relationships of numbers.
Three is one magical number--how about 12? or 40? or 7? Such numbers appears in sacred texts.

 
At 8:02 a.m., Blogger possum said...

And then there are my favorites - Fibonacci numbers and the Fibonacci sequence. Maybe it is the artist in me, but I love those patterns and finding them in nature. Then there is the magic if watching the lights go on in children when you help them discover the sequence in nature.
Just MAGIC!

 
At 1:32 p.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy Pi Day to you too! I have T-shirt with the fisrt 1000 digits of Pi. I get to wear it once a year.

 
At 12:05 p.m., Blogger J C said...

Goodness! They were talking about Pi Day on NPR. I had never heard of it. Well, now I have for sure! My goodness Philip, you typed all those numbers!

 

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