π

RadioActiveJam alerted me to the fact that today is World π Day. When I read this, I decided I should write a blog entry about π, but since I have forgotten almost everything I learned in mathematics class at school I amended my plan slightly. I decided to listen to Kate Bush singing her song, π, and write about that instead.

So I listened, and at the same time I was checking out some web pages about π, and discovered something rather strange.

Kate Bush has left out some numbers! And no, I don't mean the infinity of numbers after the end of the song. She left out a string of twenty two numbers in the middle. She went straight from,

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459
2307816406286208

to

8214808651328230664709384460955058223.

I wonder what she has against 9986280348253421170679?

I Googled this odd discovery and found that I am not the first person to have noticed, which was a little disappointing. I guess I'm just not geeky enough to be first. I'm certainly not as geeky as the guy who decided the song concealed a secret message, with the missing numbers as the key, and even started decoding it. I won't link to him because I don't want to risk being stalked by someone who might want to throw π in my face, or could turn out to be a πromaniac, or a sπ, but I'm sure you can find him for yourself if you really want to.

ANYWAY...

In my π-hunting adventures today, I came across some other musical π links that I will include here, since the Kate Bush song turned out to be flawed. (Or containing a secret message that I'm not geeky enough to understand.)

First there is π-Phonie, in which someone infinitely more geeky than I could ever aspire to be has transformed π itself into piano music. It is odd music, but not as difficult to listen to as I expected. This link is interesting in an quirky academic sort of way.

Next is a video directed by Keith Schofield, of Hard 'n Phirm singing a π song, Pi. This link is both wonderful and silly.

And here is Hard 'n Phirm again, obviously taken from the previous song but leaving out all the extraneous bits and leaving pure π. This one, in my opinion, should be The World π Day Official Theme Song.

I recommend that you load up that last link, then open this page in a separate window. Once you've done that, you'll have the words and the music, and you'll be set.

Now turn up the speakers and sing along. It's World π Day!