…is that “the people” don’t get it, like it or care about it. I’ll complain more about this later, but now I just wanted to quote the following tantalising nugget the BBC offered on yesterday’s pi day:
While there are many infinitely long numbers in maths, pi is the only one in which an infinitely simple idea – the circle – unfolds into an infinitely complex value. This paradox drives many people to distraction.
When you combine infinite simplicity and infinite complexity you get infinite stupidity. And of course to round off the article there has to be a “the world is mystical and unfathomable even to scientists so no need to feel bad about being stupid” moment supported by the existence of irrational numbers:
In this age of high-tech precision instruments, where we assure ourselves that perfection is attainable, pi is an ever-present, sometimes grating reminder that there are puzzles that can be solved and there are mysteries that, perhaps, can not.
Damn those irrational numbers, getting in the way of our secular conspiracy to understand the world! If it weren’t for them, we could measure everything! EVERYTHING, I tell you!
