31 October 2009
Arbitrariness - Pi
A friend of mine recently commented that there is a movement among some mathemiticians to institute "super pi" as the standard measure rather than pi. What "super pi" is is 2 * pi. Apparently, their argument is that 2pi is a more fundamental number than pi is. Certainly when you look at the definition of pi, circumference divided by diameter, "super pi" has at least as a legitimate a claim. Furthermore, when you think of all the mathematical formulae where 2pi appears in comparison to the number which have just plain pi, it seems they have a point. The ideal thing then, would just be to have pi defined as they're defining "super pi", but the concept of pi is too entrenched to make this switch directly. Frankly though, I don't think it's going to catch on, even though it makes sense.
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See, the problem here is that pi has been what it is for over 2000 years, so that's like trying to change the definition of, say, the calendar. (I know, the Gregorian calendar isn't THAT old, but the whole idea of about 12 months in a year and all dates at least to the Romans, if not before).
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