Happy Pi Day!!
Today is Pi Day, which will mean nothing at all to most of you. However, we should all be very glad that Pi=3.14159… because if it didn’t, circles wouldn’t be, well, circular. If you want to see something really amusing, go find your math-geekiest friend and ask them what would happen if Pi was, say, 3.
Then, after they’ve stopped twitching at the very thought, make up with it by buying them a Pi t-shirt. It’s the kind thing to do.
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Category: Hey, Mr. Science Guy!, Rampant Geekery
Actually, if we define pi as being the ratio between circumference and diameter, it's value can be 3 (or anything else). This would occur in non-Euclidian spaces. What we think of as pi is the circumference/diameter ratio that occurs only in Euclidian space. So what would happen if pi were 3? It would mean you are doing math in a slightly spherical (or other positive curvature)space. A true math geek should now that. Liebniz explained this centuries ago. It was part of his explanation (and rejection) of Euclid's troublesome and controversial Fifth Postulate.
Then if you asked a true math geek, that's the answer you get. I'd retort with, "Yeah, but what about the wheels on my car" and wait for the fun.
Then again, I kind of like getting math geeks all wound up in explanations.
Well, for the purposes of everyday existence, Euclidian space is a very good approximation. So the tires on your car conform to the 3.1415926… number. The warping of space occurs on scales far too big and far too small for us to notice (I'd recommend Lisa Randall's work, if you're interested). But physicists have to take these kind of things into account. And no matter what the curvature is, we still have deal with pi. Like e, it never goes away. Which is why I've always liked Euler's equation:
-1 = e ^(pi*i)
It doesn't really get any more fundamental than that. And I'll point out that Euler was probably the greatest mathematician of all time. We still don't fully understand his work. And his work is everywhere: structural engineering, mathematics, economics, you name it. We are all indebted to Euler. We just don't know it, and we don't really understand it yet.
And yes, I'm a math geek. But that's okay, Math is Power. And I can tell you, math geeks like getting wound up in the explanations as well. We don't get many opportunities to talk about math when someone else is actually listening
Tom, you and my friend Mr. Science Guy should meet here. He's a math geek, too, and one of my oldest and dearest friends. I'm used to listening when he talks math because I always learn something new.
I know a bit about non-Euclidean space (using the simple example of the Earth as one), but no where near as much as you. I do remember being very disappointed as how "mundane" it was once I learned what it meant, considering that my first real exposure to the phrase came from H.P. Lovecraft. It's a real let-down to know that there aren't lots of mathematicians studying how to bring across the Unspeakable Hordes from Across Time and Space.
Well, so far as I know there aren't…
I'm glad you listen. Not many people do. Math has a special beauty that few people can appreciate. If you're trying, that's a wonderful thing.
Ok…I'm not a math geek. I don't know enough. But I _like_ math. I like the fact that it _works_.
But just to throw a log on the bonfire, one of the things I find distressing about modern writing is that I think that _good_ writing shows some of the equality and balance of math. When you don't feel that balance, you know something about the writing isn't right.
Does that blow any fuses here??
See…I didn't finish that thought. It lacks balance – you know something is missing!
>>…_good_ writing shows some of the equality and balance of math. >> And often modern writing lacks that balance…no equality of subject and object…I don't know…just no balance. No ability to construct complicated sentences that are intelligible. If you've ever read Thackeray, you'll know what I mean. Not that his stories were exactly rip-roarers, but his sentence and prargraph structure was a thing to behold!