Don’t worry this has little to do with math which you’ll see in just a moment. If you remember Pi from your math class, it was a little bit confusing. Basically it’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter but let’s not get caught up in this because it’s the numerical equation of Pi where the great story is found.
Pi = 3.14159 actually extends to over ten trillion decimals/digits (infinity). In ancient times mathematicians couldn't figure out the ratio to a circumference because their world was square so to speak. They could answer questions that were easily measured like squares but circles with their rounded edges were too tricky. They created a famous math problem called the "Challenge of Circling" the square where mathematicians used a compass and a straight edge (now called a protractor) to try and figure out the problem. Pi was eventually figured out in the 18th century as the best number they could use in a formula to calculate circular space. It wasn’t a perfect number as seen in the decimal points but it was the best that could be used at the time and it certainly has stood the test of time.
Here’s where it gets really interesting even if you’re not into math. Because of the initial sequence of decimals in Pi and considering how it strings out to over ten trillion digits, it contains every number sequence we’ve ever encountered in our lives (i.e. school locker codes, all street numbers, passwords, any phone number you’ve ever seen, etc.). There’s not a single clustered sequence of numbers that doesn’t show up in this string, now finding it can be tricky but through software code it can be easily sniffed out even though we’re talking about trillions of numbers. And if you assigned each letter of the alphabet to a number there’s no word ever written that couldn’t be found in the sequence. Isn’t it amazing?
Keep in mind this amazing story is based on the initial sequence of the decimals of Pi so other numbers with decimal points wouldn’t give the random numbers necessary to cover all numerical sequences and all words ever written. For example if you take 5 and divide it by 3 you end up with 1.666667 which is an infinity number but there’s no way you’d get random sequences of numbers that would give you all the phone numbers, addresses, locker combinations, etc. in existence. The magic of Pi. Pretty cool isn’t it?
Pi = 3.14159 actually extends to over ten trillion decimals/digits (infinity). In ancient times mathematicians couldn't figure out the ratio to a circumference because their world was square so to speak. They could answer questions that were easily measured like squares but circles with their rounded edges were too tricky. They created a famous math problem called the "Challenge of Circling" the square where mathematicians used a compass and a straight edge (now called a protractor) to try and figure out the problem. Pi was eventually figured out in the 18th century as the best number they could use in a formula to calculate circular space. It wasn’t a perfect number as seen in the decimal points but it was the best that could be used at the time and it certainly has stood the test of time.
Here’s where it gets really interesting even if you’re not into math. Because of the initial sequence of decimals in Pi and considering how it strings out to over ten trillion digits, it contains every number sequence we’ve ever encountered in our lives (i.e. school locker codes, all street numbers, passwords, any phone number you’ve ever seen, etc.). There’s not a single clustered sequence of numbers that doesn’t show up in this string, now finding it can be tricky but through software code it can be easily sniffed out even though we’re talking about trillions of numbers. And if you assigned each letter of the alphabet to a number there’s no word ever written that couldn’t be found in the sequence. Isn’t it amazing?
Keep in mind this amazing story is based on the initial sequence of the decimals of Pi so other numbers with decimal points wouldn’t give the random numbers necessary to cover all numerical sequences and all words ever written. For example if you take 5 and divide it by 3 you end up with 1.666667 which is an infinity number but there’s no way you’d get random sequences of numbers that would give you all the phone numbers, addresses, locker combinations, etc. in existence. The magic of Pi. Pretty cool isn’t it?
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