Member-only story
Sometimes I find myself thinking, what if we did not have the unique number “pi”? Probably, everything would change. Our beautiful mathematics would turn strange; maybe even the earth would go awry and wouldn’t orbit the sun. If the world is still not so bad, it is because of that notorious constant number pi. Of course, these are just my assumptions and imaginary thinking.
By the way, I assumed we all know what pi is since middle school. Our teacher showed us that “pi” (π) is an irrational number, which is the ratio of a circle’s circumference (2πr) to its diameter (2r). In other words, when you measure a circular object like a coin or a cup, it will always turn out that your circle is a little more than three times its width around. That is literally true for all circles of any size.
Pi is a fascinating never-ending number and more famous and influential than other never-ending numbers “e” and “square root of two.” It is because pi can show up in the strangest of places. We can see pi in the meandering path of rivers. Hans-Henrik Stølum proved that the…