The letter count of each successive word in Keith’s version provides the first 740
digits of π.
The importance of π
What is the use of knowing π to so many places? After all, most calculations
only require a few decimal places; probably no more than ten places are needed
for any practical application, and Archimedes’ approximation of 22/7 is good
enough for most. But the extensive calculations are not just for fun. They are
used to test the limits of computers, besides exerting a fascination on the group
of mathematicians who have called themselves the ‘friends of pi’.
Perhaps the strangest episode in the story of π was the attempt in the Indiana
State Legislature to pass a bill that would fix its value. This occurred at the end of
the 19th century when a medical doctor Dr E.J. Goodwin introduced the bill to
make π ‘digestible’. A practical problem encountered in this piece of legislation
was the proposer’s inability to fix the value he wanted. Happily for Indiana, the
folly of legislating on π was realized before the bill was fully