Re: Pi = 3

On 14 Dec 2005 22:57:29 -0800, Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Aaron J. Dinkin wrote:
>> On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 22:33:07 GMT, Konrad Gaertner <kgaertner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> > The real problem is that Carl Sagan seriously thought God could
>> > change the value of pi, and some people took him seriously.
>>
>> *Change*? Who said anything about "change"?
>
> Sagan, in effect. First he says pi/4 = 1-1/3+1/5..., then later on says
> this:

<snip>

No, what I mean is: there's no reason to believe that, in the universe
_Contact_ takes place in, the value of pi ever *changes*, i.e., had one
value at one time and then another value at another time. There's no
evidence of God or anyone else *changing* the value of pi. What Ellie
discovers is something that had been true about pi all along, but not
notices.

> So first pi is fixed by the nature of the integers, and then it's in
> the "fabric" (rayon?) of space and the nature of matter, and hence
> alterable by the maker of space and matter. Sagan has two
> changes--first, of defintion, and then, by God tweaking matter in order
> to make pi come out some way.

Again, he doesn't say God "tweaked" matter. Clearly something that is
fixed by the nature of the integers musy be in the fabric of space and
the nature of matter! But the causality, so to speak, obviously goes in
the direction mathematics -> physics.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
.

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