![]() All this represents a very limited 48 bytes of memory (no need here for multiplicative prefixes such as kilo or megabytes!) to be allocated between program “steps” and storage registers. No doubt, it was at that time one of the most challenging algorithms for a tiny computer such as a TI 57.Īnd to better measure how big the challenge was, just think that a TI 57 offers only 49 program steps and 8 memory registers. And, of course, my ultimate quest was this unsurmountable-like challenge of computing pi. I was spending most of my recreation time, to write code and elaborate some algorithms even at the detriment of my school work. The advent of this computer actually changed totally my life for the following months. But what a pleasure to possess its own computer at home without the need anymore to be in the long weekly waiting list to compile a program! What a fantastic advent it was for me! Sure, I was blessed to have access to the IBM 370 mainframe of the high school (that literally required an entire 1000 square feet room to host it). Finally, during the spring of 1978, I received a box from the postal office with that mythic TI 57 calculator inside it. Actually, due to the high expense of such a “toy” these days, my dad was skeptical with spending so much money for a “futile thing”, and I had to “raise” money from my grand-parents. I still remember trying to convince my parents to buy one for me. When I was 18 years old I have been given my first “computer”, what it was called a pocket computer back in the 70’s. That renewed my interest for pi and my quest for a computation algorithm. Later, I had been made aware of pi not being algebraic and that its value can, if not computed, only be approximated by algorithms. Since then I have been intrigued by pi and, more particularly, by its never-ending decimals. I guess it came off from the middle school time when I was exposed for the first time to the computation of a circle circumference. ![]() I am a humble example of those many amateurs that succumbed to the attraction of pi. This is likely the reason why so many Mathematicians have been endeavoring the computation of pi since the beginning of the civilizations, hoping desperately to unveil its mysterious root.Īctually, one does not have to be a Mathematician to be fascinated by pi. This failure has been viewed an unacceptable state of affair by many thinkers. Intriguingly, pi looks like a stamped signature of the universe we just have to admit without having the faculty to grasp the comprehension of its value and its root. No wonder then if pi is even genuinely present in the iVEDiX Glass code, from the label placement algorithm to the packed bubble chart visualization among other areas. Pi is not just in Einstein’s theory of gravity but is everywhere in the world of science and technology. Of course, some Einstein’s equations show the symbol pi but it is just a “happy accident”, as Einstein once put it himself, showing no particular interest to this mathematical constant. ![]() ![]() However, that is probably the sole connection between this great scientist and the number pi. The reason of being pi-day is because the ratio 3/14 is the closest calendrical approximation we have to the decimal expansion of pi. Not so coincidentally, March 14th is also Albert Einstein’s birthday. It simply represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is approximately 3.14159… It is unknown why this ratio works universally for circles of all size, from the smallest to the largest, and why pi equals this very specific no-ending number. Denoted by the Greek letter: π, this is the simplest mathematical constant that the universe has bequeathed to us. Probably no symbol in mathematics has evoked much mystery, romanticism and human interest as the number pi. As a Vedic, I grasp the occasion to tell a personal life-story related to pi. Jean Michel Guillemin Laborne, iVEDiX CIO ![]()
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