To Infinity And Beyond!

You may remember the movie line "To Infinity And Beyond", spoken by Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and chuckled over the oxymoronic statement, but it does also prompt one's mind into contemplating the idea of infinity and all the related theories on the topic.

How fitting to discuss that topic on Pi Day, celebrated each year on this day, March 14, a.k.a. 3/14.

Infinity may be expressed in multiple ways, including the symbol ∞, but I was thinking for today's thought we would talk about it in relation to the symbol π and mathematically expressed as 3.14. Of course, I am referring to that number of 3.14 as actually being the abbreviated form of Pi and calculating to the infinite. Perhaps there is an end to the equation but at this time, no can be certain.

So far, Pi has been calculated to the trillions, such being 22,459,157,718,361 digits, by Peter Trueb on his 24 hard drive computer which has 6 terrabytes of memory.

Needless to say, pi is a bedrock of geometry, as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. According to history, it was first contemplated and calculated by mathematicians in ancient Babylon, though not quite as accurately as the current standard of 3.14. Over time, various ancient mathematicians got better and better at the accuracy, including Chinese math wizard Zu Chongzhi in approx 429 A.D., who managed 3.14159292. 

And how's this for impressive? According to the "Guinness Book Of World Records", the most decimal places of Pi that are memorized is 70,000, achieved by Rajveer Meena of India on March 21 2015. He was blindfolded during the 10 hour recital.
Apparently, a Japanese citizen recited Pi to over 100,000 decimal places but since the claim was never substantiated, the aforementioned record still holds.

Strange but quite fitting coincidences involving Pi Day is the facts that mathematician and scientist Albert Einstein was born on this day in 1879, and noted scientist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died on this day in 2018.