Alright. Here’s the final essay I just dug up from the depths of my hard drive. See parts 1, 2 and 3 if you’re curious as to what this is; I’m too lazy to type it all again.
Can I have a small container of coffee?
Pi, more commonly known by the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, is the most widely-known mathematical constant in the world. Even long after people forget their school lessons, they still recognise the symbol. However, many are unaware of its importance to our daily lives. In fact, many reading this article now would be thinking, “How could a strange number I learnt in school possibly help me in my daily life?” Let me use an example to showcase my point.
Imagine a delicious, freshly-baked oven pie. Along comes a small boy, of about six years old. His bright, innocent eyes stare into your before he asks you, “Sir/Madam, what happened if you divide the circumference of that pie with its diameter? Would you get the same answer no matter what size the pie was?” After which you could either hang your head in shame and admit that you are actually not smarter than a fifth grader; or you could tell him that the value obtained would be approximately equal to 3.1415926.
Of course, such scenarios are improbable. But the number pi is one of the world’s most fascinating numbers with a rich history behind it. For 4000 years, humankind has attempted to solve the puzzle of pi, slowly but surely finding newer and better approximations of its value. For example, in Ancient Egypt, pi was generally accepted to be equal to 3. In Ancient Greece 2000 years later, the great mathematician Archimedes spent years of his life to find that pi was roughly equivalent to 3.14 or 22/7. In fact, during the Second Punic War, when he tried to stop a Roman soldier from blundering over his work by shouting “Do not touch my circles!”, he was unceremoniously murdered.
The truth is, pi contains an infinite amount of digits in a completely random order. Of course, with modern technology these days, we have been able to estimate the value of pi with startling accuracy. A Japanese man, Akira Haraguchi is celebrated for recalling 100,000 digits of pi using only his memory. Supercomputers have calculated 1,240,000,000,000,000 digits of pi, on the basis that any more would probably be unnecessary. There is even a school of thought that states that pi contains only 10 digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Pi shows up everywhere. It appears in structures that have nothing to do with circles, like the measurements of the Great Pyramid at Giza. It appears in the Old Testament, where the description of Solomon’s Temple implies that pi is exactly three. It appears in the transcripts of the famous OJ Simpson trial, where you can find arguments between the judge and an FBI agent about the value of pi.
Then there are the math fanatics in the world who take pi to a whole new level. They celebrate Pi Day every year on March 14th (3.14). They also celebrate Pi Approximation Day on the 22nd of July (22/7). On both days they sing various pi songs, discuss pi, eat perfectly circular pies and on Pi Day, they even celebrate Albert Einstein’s birthday.
Pi is everywhere. Almost everything around is affected by pi one way or another. In fact, pi even appears in the title to this article! Count the number of letters in each word and out pops the digits of pi. And that is the magic of pi.
Page 1 (by Richard, original)
Page 1 (still by Richard but I went through 3 hours of my life to make this, short name version)
Page 1 (still by Richard but I went through 3 hours of my life to make this, full name version)
Page 2 (again by Richard isn’t he awesome)
Page 2 (yes it’s still Richard’s but once again I wasted useful hours of my life making some minor changes sigh I need a hobby)