Photo: Making Archimedes proud (Donna Ruvolo photos)

What occurred on the newly constructed walking path at the Grove Street Playground on Saturday morning is what happens during a pandemic when smart citizens have a lot of time on their hands.

Using chalk and a great memory, some residents set forth to notate on the walk the calculation for the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, or as it’s better known, “π” (that would be “pi” for those unfamiliar with Greek graphemes.)

Here’s all that’s known about pi.

It becomes clear why March 14 was selected by writing out the date as numbers: 3/14, the first three numbers of pi.

While most people will know pi to at least five digits – 3.1415 – of this mathematical constant (why go further?), the Grove Street folks decided to start writing … and writing … and writing the sequence of number in the calculation until, in an Shel Silverstein-esque conclusion, the sidewalk came to the end at the curve.

The impressive writing out of this list of rational numbers was accompanied by notations such as “Happy π-day” and “easy as π“. There is one hint of who the author(s) could be from a proud boast written along side Archimedes’ constant:

“all memorized by my 11yr old girl!

Smart, indeed.

Editor’s Note: Credit where credit is due: To Precinct 7’s own Donna Ruvolo for sending these photos along.