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Pi is the Word
By Larry Hendrick | March 13, 2007
Tomorrow is Pi day, and apparently it reaches high mast at 1:56 PM. I have always enjoyed learning about pi, but have not crossed over into the fanatic camp … yet. The Redhead and I enjoyed The Joy of Pi, using it as a travel book a few years ago. If you haven’t read it, grab a copy at your local bookstore or public library. Good stuff!
Those unfamiliar, pi is the relationship between a circles circle’s diameter and it’s its circumference. What makes it unique is that it is an unending number and the numbers never repeat as a series. It has been computerized, memorized, and studied for centuries, and the fascination continues.
3.14’s company: Fans of a famous number have their day | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
This is a story about love. About inscrutable complexity and remarkable simplicity, about the promise of forever. It is about obsession and devotion, and grand gestures and 4,000-word love letters.
It is about a curious group of people with an almost religious zeal for a mind-numbing string of numbers. Actually one number, made up of a chain that is known — so far — to be more than one trillion digits long.
They are the acolytes of the church of pi.
And once a year many of them gather to talk about pi, rhapsodize about it, eat pi-themed foods (actual pie, sure, but so much more), have pi recitation contests and, just maybe, feel a little less sheepish about their unusual passion.
That day falls on Wednesday this year: March 14. Or 3.14. Obviously.
Topics: Life |