Of course, it is Pi Day.
I always have loved the thought of Pi. It (the Greek letter π) is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle.
You see. No matter what size a circle is, the circumference will always be 3.14 times bigger than the diameter. Easy as Pi.
In other words, 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609433057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949129833673362440656643086021394946395224737190702179860943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132000568127145263560827785771342757789609173637178721468440901224953430146549585371050792279689258923542019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998372978049951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522308253344685035261931188171010003137838752886587533208381420617177…. And so on.
It has been around for a long time. The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians figured out this constant over 4,000 years ago. Way back then, they were using it to make calculations.
I could go on and on about it. It is mystical and magical, that never-ending number they have taken out to over a trillion digits. But we don’t need all of them. I am told that scientists can determine the spherical volume of the entire universe using just 39 places past the decimal. I told you. Magic.
Today is also Albert Einstein’s birthday. Arguably, the smartest man of all time, he thought in lofty ways. Trillions of digits ways.
The Theory of Relativity is beyond brilliant. It was based on two main suggestions. First? The speed of light is constant for all observers. Yep. And then second? Observers, you and me, moving at constant speeds, should be subject to the same physical laws.
Follow along with this good example (often used to explain this) about people playing ping pong on a train.
Okay. As I said, those two people are on a train playing ping-pong. Fun, fun.
Now we know the train is moving along in its own direction at a certain speed. Let’s say it is going 45 mph northward.
Inside, those two people are hitting the ball back and forth. Now, that little white ball appears to the players to move north at a speed of around 25 mph and then south at around 25 mph. Back and forth.
Now imagine some guy standing beside the railroad tracks. The guy sees the train going by and watches the ping-pong game through the windows. When the ball is traveling north, it will appear to travel at 70 mph. It will look slower when the other person returns the ball to the south. BUT. To the guy by the side of the train, the ball always appears to be traveling north.
So that is the relativity of things. The result is that the speed of the ball depends on the “relative” position of the observer. It will be different for the people on the train than for the person on the side of the railroad tracks.
One thing we can agree on here. The theory of relativity and the calculation of Pi are both results of some lofty thinking.
If I were born on March 3, I’d be thinking I was pretty darn smart to be in the midst of Einstein and Pi. Lots of people have this birthday, by the way. Like Michael Caine, Quincy Jones, Steph Curry, and Lucy Hobbs Taylor, the first woman dentist in the United States, born in Constable, New York (1833).
I bet they are all connected somehow.
Like Lucy Hobbs Taylor. I’m sure she saw a lot of patients with bad teeth. I’m guessing a lot of them had probably eaten pie.
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“Magic is just science that we don’t understand yet”
— Arthur C. Clarke
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“I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sensed it enough to get a hold of it and make it do things for us”
— Frances Hodgson Burnett
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“It’s all a matter of paying attention, being awake in the present moment, and not expecting a huge payoff. The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses.”
— Charles de Lint
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Let’s have a piece of pie. Pi. Pie.
