As pi day, 14 March, was also Einstein's birthday, it is appropriate to note that while pi is certainly a constant, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is not:
"In a curved space, we could imagine defining the 'diameter' of a circle as the maximum geodesic distance connecting two of its points, and taking the ratio of the circumference with that diameter, and indeed it would typically not give us 3.14159… But that doesn’t mean π is changing from place to place; it just means that the ratio of circumference to diameter (defined this way) in a curved space doesn’t equal π." http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/11/11/the-pi-on/ Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=16719 or send a blank email to leave-16719-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
