Some things were sacrosanct when we were
growing up and Pi was one of them. It was well-ensconced on its mathematical
pedestal and it looked like it had life eternal. Now whoever thought that it
had feet of clay and would one day crumble and collapse? Not in our wildest
dreams! But the times they are a-changing so rapidly and even the life and
times of Pi must come to an end. Oh, how the hallowed have fallen!
It all began with Bob Palais’ article ten
years ago ‘Pi is wrong’. And a while ago, Michael Hartl resurrected the
argument for a new circle constant. So what is right according to these
new-fangled maths wizards? 2Pi or Tau as Palais’ followers have been calling it
the last year. According to them, 6.28
makes better sense than 3.14 and they are calling for a Tau Day which they want
on the 28th of June (6/28, see?) Arguments for and against are
flying fast and furious and with the speed at which the world is changing, who
knows? The Pi we thought was hallowed and everlasting could soon be history.
Maybe someone should have told the Google
guys about it when they were bidding for the Nortel patents. Were they being
too clever or were they really not interested and just having fun? They even
bid $3.14159 billion at one point during the auction. And the other
figures had mathematical connotations too – from Brun’s constant to the
Meissel-Merten’s constant, these figures just confused many at the auction. The
bidding went up to $4.5 billion and the consortium consisting of Apple, Microsoft,
Rim and Sony got it. Looks like Google really isn’t serious about their Android
venture. Maybe if they were keeping up with what was going on in the
mathematical world, they would have gone up to the magical Tau figure of 6.28
and won it!
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