Pi Day!

3/14/2022  Pi Day

The following info is from this site and I’ll italicize the info taken from the website.

Pi is an irrational number (a decimal with no end and no repeating pattern) that is most often approximated with the decimal 3.14 or the fraction 22/7.  

3.141592654 is what we tend to see (if we see it at all) because most calculator display windows are 10 digits. 

In 1767, Swiss mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert proved pi is irrational and in 1882 Ferdinand von Lindemann proved pi is transcendental.  This is significant because, until this point, it was believed that one could construct a square and a circle with equal area, known as “squaring the circle”. Proving the transcendence of pi showed this is not possible and the phrase “squaring the circle” is now used as a metaphor for trying to do something that is impossible.

Did you see the name of that first mathematician? Lambert? One letter off from Lamberg? Means absolutely nothing except from my vantage point of having been married to one Lamberg for 40 years and given birth to some more of them – I have been just that close to the awe and the humor.

Also, I would like to lift out those claims - that Pi is both irrational AND transcendent. Isn’t this just about a perfect description of how you know when you are close to truth?  Like loving a 2-year-old or staying committed to one person over a couple epochs or leaving a perfectly decent partner because neither irrationality nor transcendence ever arrived on the scene. Or the way it feels when you weren’t thinking about anything at all and then spring sunshine comes through your March window and you realize you have made it another trip around the sun?

Irrational and transcendent!

With modern technological advances, pi has now been calculated to 31 trillion digits.  However, only the first 39 or so are needed to be able to perform all calculations in our observable universe with virtually no error.

“Only the first 39 or so…”  I just wrote this on a piece of paper and taped it to the wall next to me because I think this is hilarious and also a clue.  I have no idea what it is a clue to. I’ll let you know if I figure it out.

“We are looking for the appearance of some rules that will distinguish the digits of pi from other numbers. If you see a Russian sentence that extends for a whole page, with hardly a comma, it is definitely Tolstoy. If someone gave you a million digits from somewhere in pi, could you tell it was from pi? We don’t really look for patterns; we look for rules”

Whoa! What do you look for in your life? Patterns or rules?  What an excellent question.

I was certainly raised on rules. There is a lot to be said for raising little kids with rules so that they feel secure and so that you mimic to them what life ought to feel like. Then as they grow up they discover you were making all that up and there aren’t many rules. So now one looks for patterns.  Such as brushing one’s teeth regularly will serve us better in the long run. So will committed relationships, a healthy regard for nutrition, and working to enfranchise the vote to all citizens of any realm.

Go ahead and read the rest of the website about Pi. There’s a lot of cool science stuff in there.

…

On Saturday (two days ago, when it was winter) our son and his son came here for the day. This boy and his sister are new to us; the desire and plan is that they will be adopted but time will tell, so that’s all I trust to say right now. Other than mentioning the powerful way you love a grandchild is irrational and transcendent.

Anyways, my son has been telling his kid about playing “ingredients” with Grandma. This pastime arose out of ‘Mom is trying to finish supper’ and ‘Mom doesn’t want the kids to watch the evening news’ and ‘Mom really wishes the kids would not dump MORE toys out in our small house’ because it’s the end of the day and she is losing her ever-loving mojo.  

Ingredients started when I gave a kid still in her highchair a plastic bowl of flour and a measuring cup of water and a spoon.  As the kids got older, other ingredients would show up. Leftover rice and mashed potatoes. Cereal so healthy no one would eat it. The couscous no kid would touch. Dry beans in interesting colors. Sprinkles. Anything that was a food stuff that was not outright rotten. Stale was good. 

The kids would mix this with water. (Always a good idea to put large trays underneath.)  As they got older I gave them cupcake papers to make ‘muffins’ for the squirrels.

Saturday  our grandson made an ‘ingredients pie’ and now you see where I’m going. When he was done this pie pan was filled with gloppy flour and cornmeal dough infused with split peas and doused with many sprinkles.  We put it outside for the squirrels.

This is what’s left today.

Happy Pie Day.

And while I was outside - Look what else I found!

Newborn iris!

Crocuses! Croci?