excerpt Mathematics for English Majors By Ben Orlin. September 2024, Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers. Published with permission.
Every March 14th, the mathematics community celebrates its favorite holiday by canceling classes, eating its fill of pie, and reciting the decimal expansion of mathematics’ most revered constant. Young and old, men and women, pure mathematicians and applied mathematicians, algebraists and analysts, we all come together to celebrate Pi Day.
However…okay, I take that back. largely Many of us celebrate, a few grumpy ones like to complain about it.
We will discuss this again later, but first, what is pi? diameter (Distance on the circumference) is, Zhou (the distance around the circumference). Roughly speaking, 3 cross Equal to 1 The surrounding area.
More specifically, around is about 3.14 times larger than across. Even more specifically, it is about 3.141 592 653 589 793 times larger. Super specifically, 3.141 592 653 589 793 238 462 643 383 279 502 884 197 169 399 375 105 820 974 944 592 307 816 406 286 208 998 628 034 825 342 117…
We could get more specific, but we’d never be good enough. That’s because this number, known as π, or Pi, is an irrational number. That means it’s not a ratio. It can’t be expressed as a fraction. It can’t be expressed as a decimal. You can’t even do tricks like writing 1⁄3 as 0.3̅, because the digits in π don’t settle into a repeating pattern. There are new sequences of numbers everywhere you look, never seen before. I’ve heard 12-year-olds recite 100 numbers, and that’s nothing compared to the 70,030 numbers that Suresh Kumar Sharma recited over 17 (probably painful) hours in October 2015.
So why are mathematicians so infuriated by this? With apologies to Dr. Seuss, I find the easiest way to express their lack of Christmas spirit is to use a rhyme.
All the kids in the class had a great time on Pi Day.
But the Grinch in the Faculty Lounge didn’t!
For the Grinch, this was the silliest season.
And whether asked or not, he would readily explain why.
“In America, the 3rd and 14th
It’s March 14th. That must be what “Pi Day” means.
However, in other parts of the world, we name the day first and then the month.
So 3/14 is Kerplump’s third.
For one month, I will swear that such a thing doesn’t exist.
And that’s just one of my complaints.
On this terrible day that has shaken the whole country,
It is built on crude approximations.
22 divided by 7 is close to pi.
So let’s wait until that day in mid to late July.
Plus, the old pi is now a relic.
All the cool mathematicians worship Tau.
And I told you it was eating me alive.
3 points 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5?
It just goes on and on and on and fills me with hatred.
3 5 8 9 7 9 3 2 3 8! These are all meaningless numbers!
Hot wasted breath!
Ah, so boring.
No, I’m bored.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
These numbers have no meaning outside of decimal.
And that’s a number that nobody needs.
Once they reach their 30s and 40s, they are no longer useful as Thneeds.
For a circle 1 million light years wide,
The numbers may stop at 25.
You can still calculate the circumference
Up to the nano-non-interference range,
A distance of 1/1000th of a hair’s width.
Anything above that number doesn’t really bother me.
What I assert is true.
Pi Day is an excuse
Trade math for dessert.”
If we set aside the calendar argument and focus on the mathematical argument, we can see two things working in the Grinch’s favor.
First, irrational numbers are not uncommon. If you throw a dart at a number line, you’re sure to hit it. If it’s irrational numbers we’re concerned about, we’d be better off replacing Pi Day with April 12th, √_17 Day, or _3.e January 7th is the 16th. Sure, pi is more significant than these numbers, but dwelling on its irrationality is like centering a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the fact that he was 5 feet 7 inches tall. It misses the point.
Second, even if it is an irrational number, was If it were rare, memorizing the number would still be a silly pastime. Usually, π can be rounded to 3.14159, 3.14, or 3. For practical purposes, and even for non-practical ones, we can say that π is a rational number.
That being said, few Grinchers would follow this logic to its horrifying conclusion. Irrational numbers do not exist.
Infinite precision is impossible. No ruler, scale, or stopwatch can give you an infinite number of decimal places. Sooner or later, you have to round. And when you round, irrational numbers disappear, replaced by boringly rational approximations.
So in what sense do non-irrational numbers exist other than in our imagination?
For 364 days out of the year, we must accept the dismal reality that irrational numbers are empirically (if not existentially) meaningless except for the first few digits. But for one day a year, the world indulges in the illusion that irrational numbers exist. For one day, the world can stop and admire a number that it can’t explain, a noun that can never be spoken.
Plus, you get to eat a handful of pecan pastry – what’s not to love?
And what happened after? Some say the Grinch’s little heart grew three times its size that day. Others say it grew a little bit more, maybe 3.1 times, or maybe 3.1/4 times…
Mathematics for English Majors It is scheduled to be released on September 3, 2024, and is currently available for pre-order.
