It's high time we talk about pi

I've been thinking a lot about pi and pie (of course).  I haven't posted anything about pi here yet, so here goes.  I thought I would write about "why pi?"

To start with, pi is a letter of the Greek alphabet that has been assigned a number.  It will always represent that number to mathematicians, scientists and students.  The symbol, π, is used in mathematical formulas and it is assumed that the user of the formula knows the number that will be substituted in its place.  Makers of calculators have made access to pi very easy.  Just push a button and pi will be displayed out to 9 - 12 digits.  Most people know pi as 3.14, but others who consider their calculations to be serious would never use any less than 3.14159 or more.

There has been much debate about the usefulness of pi, its origins, and its basic reason for existence.  Truly, pi is an abbreviation.  A short-hand way for people to indicate the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter.  Assigning this symbol to an oft-occurring ratio was helpful to mathematicians, scientists and carpenters alike.  Truly, it is just like anything else - if we can find a shortcut, we will use it.  The only issue with this abbreviation is that sometimes it is used in absence of the knowledge behind it.  Children learn about pi long before they know about the relationship it represents.  It is just a wacky number that they have to memorize, and that is a shame.  I say that because it makes something useful into something potentially annoying.  No one likes to memorize useless facts.

How useful is pi?  Depends on where you sit.  Some folks use it every day.  Others can't remember the last time they even thought about pi.  I think we can celebrate the pure staying power of an interesting ratio.  Archimedes was committed to figuring out this puzzle in about 250 BC by using the perimeters of regular polygons inscribed in circles to get closer to an accurate number.  There are references to this ratio as far back as 1900 BC on Egyptian papyrus.  Of course, using the symbol we know today was not a way of life back then.  That happened in 1706 AD by William Jones.  Until then, it had been referred to as Archimedes constant.

All this talking about pi is making me hungry for pie!  Summer pies are coming soon.  I think I will start with a Black and Blue.  Sound good to anyone?