But if you accept that the month comes first, this is actually a really special Pi Day, because at a little before 9:30 AM, it will be 3/14/15 9:26:53, which is pretty cool. And pi, you have to admit, is an awesome number. It's the first number most of us run into in school that's irrational -- that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two integers, and whose decimal expansion never terminates or repeats.
Pi is formally defined as the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. Its approximate value was known to Chinese, Indian, and Greek mathematicians as far back as 2,500 years ago; a more precise method for determining the value of pi was discovered by the extraordinary Indian mathematician Madhava of Sangamagrama in the 14th century, and rediscovered by Gottfried Leibniz of Germany three hundred years later. Both of them had uncovered the peculiar relationship now called the Madhava-Leibniz formula:
This was just the first of many appearances of pi in unusual places -- it's a number that crops up over and over in physics, for example.
All of which has made it important that we know pi to a great degree of accuracy. Computers have now been used to calculate pi to 13.3 trillion digits, which is pretty damned impressive, and which makes what a wingnut who calls himself "Jain108" is claiming even crazier.
Jain108 says we've got pi wrong. Pi, he says, is actually 3.144. Give or take. Which, I think we can all agree, is far less than accurate to within 13.3 trillion digits. But this doesn't dissuade Jain108 at all. He says if we just accept his value, we'll find our pipes fitting together better:
(A)n ex-Engineer from NASA, "Smokey” admitted (via email) that when he was making metal cylinders for this same Mooncraft, finished parts just did not fit perfectly, so an adjusted value for Pi was also implemented. At the time, he thought nothing about it, but after reading an internet article called The True Value of Pi, by Jain 108, he made contact.Because that couldn't have anything to do with inaccuracies of construction, or anything.
But that's not his only argument. We should accept his higher value for pi because, I dunno, mysticism or something:
For reasons that will be soon explained, traditional Pi is deficient because historically it has awkwardly used logical straight lines to measure illogical curvature. Thus, by using the highest level of mathematics known as Intuitive Maths, the True Value of Pi must be a bit more than anticipated to compensate for the mysterious "Area Under The Curve”. When this is done, the value, currently known as JainPi, = 3.144… can be derived, by knowing the precise Height of the Cheops Pyramid which is based on the Divine Phi Proportion (1.618…). Instead of setting our diameter at 1 unit or 1 square, something magical happens when we set the diameter at the diagonal length of a Double Square = 2.236… which is the Square Root of 5 (meaning 2.236… x 2.236… = 5). This is the critical part of the formula that derives Phi (1+√5)÷2, and was used by ancient vedic seers as their starting point to construct their most important diagram or ‘Yantra’ or power-art called the Sri Yantra. With a Root 5 diameter, the translation of the Phi’s formula into a geometric construct derives the royal Maltese Cross symbol, concluding that Phi is Pi, that Phi generates Pi, and that Pi must be derived with a knowledge of the Harmonics of Phi. When this is understood and utilized, we will collectively enter into a veritable Space Age.Oh! Okay! I mean, my only question would be, "What?" This is about as lucid as when people like Diane Tessman start to babble about using quantum physics to explain astrology.
But I thought I'd soldier on, so I kept reading. And then I ran into a section where Jain108 claims that his ideas are proven because Queen Elizabeth and "Pope Benedictine XVI" both have worn robes with Maltese crosses, and something about the Ark of the Covenant. So despite my earlier objections, I think we can all agree that what we have here is an "air-tight case."
Other fun stuff abounds in this website, such as when he calls 3.144 "the PIN number of the universe." But my favorite part of what Jain108 calls "3.144ology" is when he starts talking about a guy named Billy Meier, who is "one of the most controversial members of the UFO community:"
Billy Meier is a Swiss farmer in contact with Plearjen people (humans like you and me) since the age of 6. In Contact 251 it is stated :So if the "Plearjen people" are "humans like you and me," what makes them "Plearjen people?" And how could changing the value of pi make us access "unimaginable energies?"
"In the process they will discover that the base for pi was miscalculated. By eliminating the error in pi, and correcting future computations based on pi, scientists and their amazing, highly developed technology will have the capability to make unimaginable energies accessible to the people of Earth”.
The only thing in the way is the pride and arrogance of mathematicians who cannot conceive of such a notion that Pi could be anything else than what their books have instructed them to believe. It is their lack of understanding of Fractal Harmonics (based on the cascading proportions of the Fibonacci Sequence) which hinders them to comprehend the elegance of the geometric solution known as the Fairywand Method identical to Saint Germain’s Maltese Cross. Fractal Harmonics allows us to zoom forever into the Area Under The Curve and detect more infinitesimal Areas Under The Curve, concluding that old Pi is only an approximation, a limit of millions or billions of straight lines, that it is deficient, that the True Value of Pi must be a fraction more than we estimated, and that it must be based on Phi, The Golden Mean Harmonics. Thus 4 divided by the Square Root of Phi (1.272…) gives the correct frequency of 3.144… its really very simple.
True Pi is like a crystalline seal or a Recoding ready to unlock, to override the old genetic imprint of degeneration, of lack and sickness. It will, in effect, spark a Process of Purification.The "Fairywand Method" allows you to "zoom forever into the Area Under The Curve." So there you are, then.
In any case, I'm sorry if you thought you were going to be able to celebrate the extra-special Pi Day today. Since Jain108's version of pi is, more exactly, 3.14460551..., you'll have to wait until March 14, 2046, at five minutes and 51 seconds past midnight, to be able to celebrate your Pi Moment.
I hope the thousands of pies people have purchased to celebrate the occasion will keep until then.