The Truth about Pi (A Mathematical Love Story by Gil Tantoco)
Have you ever wondered why pi has to be irrational? Like, maybe there’s a story behind pi and its irrationality and mathematicians just keep it a secret?
Let me tell you the story of Pi and pi.
A long time ago, there was a mathematician named Pi and then he was the first ever to fall in love among the members of “Math for Tomorrow” club.
Of course, “Pi” was just a nickname for this guy, because the members of the “Math for Tomorrow” club had to protect themselves from haters. His nickname was “Pi” because he loved pies. It was as simple as that.
But going on to why that darned long value represents pi.
Well, when he fell in love, he decided to bake pies for the girl he loved. Seven pies a week, one pie each day. He told himself that he’d do this for three weeks (aka one whole month, twenty-one days), and then he’d propose to her. So on he went.
Pi baked pies for the girl every single day. The first week passed, then the second week. And finally, he had baked twenty-one pies for her. He baked one last pie for the girl he loved, and in it was the ring. He approached her and presented the pie to her, but she shook her head.
"I’m sorry," she told Pi. "But I cannot live on pies and Math for the rest of my life." With that, she gave Pi the twenty-second pie.
Pi was so upset and depressed that he decided to leave the “Math for Tomorrow” club. But before he left, he gave them one more value. “Here is pi,” Pi said. “Minus the e.” The rest of the members were surprised at the fraction, and the non-terminating decimal equivalent.
They asked Pi to explain what this so-called “pi” value was. And so he explained it the best he could.
Pi sighed. “I baked twenty-two pies for the girl I loved: one pie on each of the seven days of the week, until she broke my heart. So 22/7.”
"Then explain why you had to make it irrational!" someone called out. "Irrational because that was how I thought and acted in love," Pi said.
Pi moved on to the decimal. “It was a coincidence, that the whole number was three. For the words I always told her, but never heard back.”
Pi then looked at his past comrades. “And this value, this pi, will go on forever… Never to terminate, just like my love for her.”
With that, Pi walked out of the room, leaving the rest of the members of the “Math for Tomorrow” club to reflect about the value of pi. This irrational, non-terminating value spread quite phenomenally, on and on to the next generations..
Pi’s story was soon forgotten.
