#11 - Get Rational - I Think We've Given Up on the Labeling Thing

Hello everyone! This is Shira here, gleefully celebrating Pi Day along with a great many others. Although it is too bad we could not post this on 3:14 or 1:59, I still think the day deserves some kind of acknowledgement. Wordsmiths and mathemagicians are not mutually exclusive! Mathemagicians have access to some of the most unique words in our lexicon. As for me, I'm still pretty sure the area under the curve is Subcurvetania.

Pi- it's an irrational mathematical constant, a friend of mine, a kind of Thai oboe, the representation for inorganic phosphate in cellular respiration, and so much more. Add an e to the end and it becomes a delicious desert. Today, though, we focus on the inconstant constant, and just how far it has come.

Pi began its numerical existence in Egypt, but really got rolling with Archimedes, when he determined that it was more than 3.140 and a bit, but less than 3.142 and a bit. Time passed and Lambert and Euler realized hey, maybe this thing goes on forever. At the end of the 19th century, Indiana (as in the state of Indiana!) decided to toss the whole thing and call it even at 3.2; luckily, it didn't pan out (the members of the state senate saw that the whole business might have been a little irrational (I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that.).). The turn of the century saw Ramanjuan, who developed a dynamic new algorithm that computers are still using today, working it out. Oh yes, they are still plugging away! Professor Kanada at Todai and the Chudnovsky Brothers are still busily working away at that number on home-built computers, in the pursuit of a happy ending. It's very possible that deep within their hearts, all mathematicians dream of ultimate closure-- the last slice of pi.

π is a good friend of ours, giving us words like περιφέρεια (periphery). Some words that start with pi that you might enjoy:
I. Pimiento: a tasty kind of cherry pepper.
II. Piquant: the word you might use to describe a particularly scrumptious pimiento.
III: Piton: the apparatus you might hang from if you were consuming a piquant pimiento while rock climbing.
IV: Pithy: either full of pith or how you might be described if you made a strikingly intelligent commentary on pi while consuming piquant pimientoes on a piton.
V: Piracy: when your fellow piton-suspended friend steals your pithy, piquant pimiento-born thought and either sails the seven seas with it (cutlasses involved?) or puts it on the internet (assumedly swashbucklingly).

Finally, Quentin, who I hope will use his keen intellectual insight to polish up this post, is himself a supreme mathemagician. He has discovered a bunch of approximations of pi, far superior to the twenty-two-over-seven you may be familiar with. Check it out here: http://piapprox.blogspot.com/! Shira out.

[Update #2 - dang, I had this whole update typed up but my browser crashed, oh well... heh, I think I'll push "Save" now.]

P.S. Love swashbucklingly.... that adverbial form is exquisite.

I don't know what needs polishing here except my approximation blog, which is bordering on defunct, might want to fix that. Hey, if the Coolest Person Ever is reading this they would click on the link above, get the hang of how to make an awesome approximation, send it to quentinandshira@gmail.com, and would be acknowledged as the coolest person ever.... just sayin'

Some "pi" words here to share. I might not be cool enough to amalgamate as nicely as Shira did, but, hey, let's try:

Pichiciego - a species of armadillo (in fact the smallest species of armadillo) also known as the Pink Fairy Armadillo. 

Piña Colada - a rum-based cocktail (enjoyed by PIrates and PIchiciegos) 

Piccolo - a small flute, often played by pirates and pichiciegos while drinking piña coladas (getting caught in the rain... okay, this is getting a bit too bizarre)

Happy π day everyone, sit down with a nice circular slice of pie and measure its circumference and diameter. Take the ratio if you're cool enough...

Deliciously/Sincerely,

Quentin & Shira