In case you\u2019re not aware, today is International Pi (\u03c0) Day, March 14 or 3.14.<\/p>\n
The day is named in honor of Arnaldo Pi, the inventor of mathematics, who realized if he calculated the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, he\u2019d come up with 3.14. He also realized its decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanently repeating pattern. And he was astute enough to realize, therefore, that he could never sell pi as an end-to-end solution because it didn\u2019t exactly have an end.<\/p>\n
What Arnaldo did not realize, however, is that his formula for calculating the area of a circle \u2014 \u03c0r<\/i>2\u00a0<\/sup><\/span>\u2014 would land him in hot water with the WAG (World\u2019s Authoritarian Grammarians). According to the WAG, the formula, \u03c0r<\/i>2<\/sup><\/span>, is grammatically incorrect. Rather, the WAG insisted, the formula should be \u03c0is2\u00a0<\/sup><\/span>because \u03c0 is singular.<\/p>\n As a means of justifying his formula, Arnaldo wrote the following letter to the WAG in hopes that they might leave him and his formula alone or at least cut him some slack:<\/p>\n Esteemed Members of the WAG,<\/p>\n I appeal to you for some latitude in rendering my formula for calculating the area of a circle on the following grounds:<\/p>\n First, I\u2019m the inventor of mathematics, for cryin\u2019 out loud. Nobody ever did this before. Since I\u2019m making it up as I go along, how can you say I\u2019m wrong?<\/p>\n Second, what about Toys \u2018R\u2019 Us? You let a retail chain that sells junk to impressionable kids get away with that \u2014 and you want to bust my chops?! I have to say it feels like I\u2019m being singled out unfairly.<\/p>\n Finally, I think you have to decide whether you\u2019ll err on the side of mathematical accuracy or grammatical accuracy. After all, you can\u2019t have your pi and eat it, too.<\/p>\n Yours sincerely in numbers,<\/p>\n Arnaldo Pi<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Arnaldo, as we now know, prevailed. That\u2019s why all of us are now able to calculate the areas of circles with mathematical precision, albeit with grammatical incorrectness. But who cares? Arnaldo\u2019s victory gives us all the more reason to celebrate International Pi Day, regardless of whether we prefer apple, peach, blueberry, strawberry, rhubarb, chocolate, custard, banana cream, lemon meringue, key lime, or mince.<\/p>\n Eat responsibly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In case you\u2019re not aware, today is International Pi (\u03c0) Day, March 14 or 3.14. The day is named in honor of Arnaldo Pi, the inventor of mathematics, who realized if he calculated the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, he\u2019d come up with 3.14. He also realized its decimal representation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArnaldo\u2019s Defense<\/h5>\n
The Verdict<\/h5>\n