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.)
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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.
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