The Mystical Significance of Pi

Mystery at the Heart of Reason

31.4 trillion digits, at the moment.

That is how many places the magical number Pi has been calculated to, as of right now.

Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Its a simple question: what is the relationship between a circle’s width and its outline?

People pondering this question goes way back. Over 4000 years.

You can understand why: because of its fundamental nature. It is just sitting there in your face when you look at a circle.

And, as it turns out, its mysterious answer. The answer is that we don’t really know, we can only estimate it. That is just gasoline on the math-types’ desire.

More fundamentally though, the question is perennial because it bridges between the physical and mental. In a simple and easy-to-understand it forces the questioner to at once straddle the common-sense-everyday (you can literally show the ratio on the above circle with your fingers) vs. the metaphysical: the intellectually rigorous, idealized Pi is forever vanishing into the intuitive.