Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Pi On Demand


I need to counter the stereotype, nay ethnic smear, which says buckaneers tape over the 'pi' key on their calculators because they don't believe in it. "I don't believe Nature is using pi" Bucky kept saying, even though he'd publish the opening digits, like in Grunch of Giants (subversive!).

Whereas it's true that we're skeptical of calculators, prefer actual laptops, there's nothing verboten about using 3.14 to get the circumference, in meters, of this building in Wichita, Kansas, home of the Wichita House and/or Dymaxion Deployment Unit (DDU).

In honor of said operational process (using the pi feature), and leaving aside the deep philosophical questions about nature's discreteness, I provide the above Youtube by Wesley Fryer and company. Linking geometry with geography is what we're all about n'est pas? I appreciate his take.

Greetings to Nirel, on the beach in Malibu, had beers with your dad just now. We're hoping Kiah is enjoying her XO, even if the screen isn't touch sensitive.