Pi Day: fun with numbers: 'fixing' pi (π)

Quest for Pi solved with polygons 🥧 - 22/7=pi (3.14...) since ancient architects calculated it.

Understanding irrational numbers: pi vs. rational numbers - 

Pi as a fraction? It's possible #shorts #math - Visualization of pi being irrational

Worship the number, Kids, like in dumb religion

At UC Berkeley, my roommate Nathaniel and I used to mull over the Big Questions -- rebirth, telepathy, PSI, ultimate reality, physics, infinity, the nature of space, psychic powers, black holes, UFOs, the meaning of life, the futility of death, and the importance of birth control, in addition to debating whether reading fiction (like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) could serve any practical function. Those were the salad days, under a powerful red light in a half-mannequin lamp in otherwise very hippie digs, there was no question we would not tackle. I came at things from mysticism, literature and psychology, whereas he was the numbers man, practical engineer, and theoretical physicist.

Douglas Adams' fictional book about a Guide

He loved sports, I loved music. He did homework (problem sets) with all his free time, and I meditated at the Berkeley Zen Center and more or less gazed at my navel the rest of the time. He was much smarter, but I got better grades. We were in school to be schooled and went on to grad school to continue the cat and mouse, chasing GPAs and glory of a most trivial and nerdy sort. Because what college really gives a person of privilege is the leisure to think, philosophize, question, debate, foster intellectual creativity, and expand. How sad that so many people spend it drinking or doing all the things they missed out in high school from having to study so much to get into a place like Cal, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, or Yale in the first place. We were sober for our discussions.

If only I had done more math, if only he had taken a real philosophy class (instead of accidentally landing himself in a course on logic), what might have been? We'd be two doctors having this debate:

• Natty, my good man, let me propose a problem for analysis.
• Yeah-yeah, Dawg, wassup?
• As you are a privileged white male in our society, having undertaken a full and rigorous course of mathematics up to and including calculus, I have a thought experiment for you.
• Aw, Man, drop that b*tch, and let's hear it.
• Would you mind, Friend, dispensing with the urban diction?
  
• The whuh?
• The Ebonics or whatever manner of slang you're currently employing.
• Say whut, Nugs? I be talkin' like I always be talkin! Word!
• You never talk like this! Anyway, if it's what you prefer, it's just that you're making a mockery of these proceedings.
• Ahh, yeah, lemme git da redlight! Sounds like an all nighter to wax on 'bout.
• Here it is. I say pi (π, 3.14159...) is stupid because it is, as you say, "irrational." I want it to be rational rather than go on forever. And I think I thought up a way to do it.
• Do whut, Dawg?
• Get it to end, get it to be rational, get it to divide cleanly (without remainder), get all the measurements in order, from say a perspicacious, anal, or OCD drive in me to make better pyramids, architecture, and other low-to-no margin of error constructions by making the calculations in the blueprints better.
• "Better"?
• They'll be better in that they come out without infinite remainders of trailing digits beyond the decimal point.
• No need, my Brutha.
• This has never been about a need. This is pure science with no (apparent) application, research for its own sake, and you're just the man to do. Take this back to your professors and put it to them. They may see the wisdom of such a pursuit in building, calculating, and approaching the verities of life in a perfect simulation/world.
• Pi can'ts bee evenly divided; it stays irrational.
• I know. But I have a way to evenly divide it and make it rational, that is, to turn it from an odd number to an even number.
• Ain't gonna happen, Bruh.
• That's what the purpose of this thought experiment is! I'm going to make it happen. See if you don't agree, as my mind is not bogged down with all the math knowledge, rules acceptance, and numerical assumptions you labor under, I think I'm onto something. It's very easy in theory. How it would be proven, that I leave up to you. I'm the visionary madman making a creature. You are a white lab coat wearing functionary in this thought lab.
• STEP 1: Switch from Base 10 to another base, such as Base 11 (or 13, 22, 7, 28, 60, 364, or 365). We'll start with those first.
• STEP 2: Calculate pi. I bet it will break even without all those digits after the decimal.
• Aww, ai don't think it'll work, Dawg, ai'ight?
• STEP 3: Keep plugging in different bases until it does work.
• Whut's da use? If it ain't workin, how's swtichin gonna work it?
• I suggest we try Base 11.5 or Base 5. Then Base 10.66 or 10.67. See Base 10 is even, and I think that's the fundamental problem, so let's switch to an odd base.
• "Odd base"?
• Yes, something that is not even like 10.
• Ya may be onto sumthin.
• I know. And I need you to prove it. Otherwise, I'm going to have to resort to Mathletics, AI, Chat GPT, Grok, and other demonic entities to work it out. And you know they can't, for all they can do is tell me what a genius I am and how I just invented a new math system, and all that other back patting and feelgood replying they do to sincere saps who resort to such compliments when, in fact, they need pushback.
• I ain't sure Texas Instruments calculators can handle this job cuz, internally, they might be juzz as jacked as math books in publik schoolz, ya hear?
• Yeah, I hear. We may have to use a computer or supercomputer for this one. Doesn't your physics class have a lab with just such a program or IBM, Apple, or Hewlett Packard device?  

Supporting mixed-level math learning: Mathletics success story from elementary

(Kristina Gobetti, Feb. 19th, 2026) Categories: Educators

Int'l Day of Women and Girls in Science

In classrooms where students read at different levels, teaching math becomes a double challenge: helping students understand both the mathematics and the questions [word problems] themselves.

Teaching a split class in rural Alberta, Canada, Jennifer Doherty at Alder Flats Elementary School needed a program flexible enough to support all her students.

She found that solution in Mathletics, an online math program for schools that has become an essential tool for building numeracy [the number version of literacy] skills and confidence. Watch Doherty explain how Mathletics works in her classroom every day, from audio support to clear progress reporting. More

Is Pi rational? Not by this definition

Disability benefits: Last Week Tonight

WARNING: Gratuitous use of profanity (F-word) for emphasis and laughs, mime hatred, and an -ism!

Disability benefits: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

(LastWeekTonight) Sept. 26, 2024: #4 on Trending. John Oliver discusses why disability benefits (SSI, SSDI) can be hard to get and easy to lose, how getting them can turn people’s lives upside down, and why John f'ing hates mimes. Yeah, you heard us. John Oliver f**king hates mimes. Spread the word.

Connect with Last Week Tonight online... Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens (lastweektonightFind), on Facebook like your mom would, on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news, or visit official site for all that other stuff at once: hbo.com/lastweektonight.

How to astral project in one day (video)

Aaron Abke, 11/22/18; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Going to the realm of Kwan Yin and Prajna Paramita to see goddesses (William On/flickr)

How I learned to ASTRAL PROJECT in ONE day

Instagram: @aaronabke. All online workshops and webinars can be found at aaronabke.com. All Patreon (patreon.com/aaronabke) subscribers of $20 or more will receive all monthly online workshops free. All contributions are much appreciated.

• Meditation app Ananda premium by Manuel Loigeret (iTunes)
• #AstralProjection #AstralTravel #OutOfBodyExperience

Calling all Buddhist Geeks! Apply now

Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Vince Horn and Crew, BuddhistGeeks.com

The doors to the Buddhist Geeks Community are now open!

This is a space for Buddhists to connect, practice, and learn with fellow geeks in a community that spans philosophical approaches as well as geographical and generational boundaries.

 

Think of it as the conversations that have been happening in the Podcast and at the Conferences, but now opened up to geeks everywhere.

At this time, the Community (a cyber-sangha of sorts) invites all to apply to be included. The application helps BG get to know potential geeks. Spend a month trying it out for FREE (no payment information required).

 

If one chooses to continue to be in the Community after that month, BG will be in touch to ask for a monthly financial contribution. This contribution helps support Buddhist Geeks in being able to maintain the Community and the rest of the organization. Scholarships are available for those who need them.

Yoga Origins (Buddhist, Hindu, Jain)

Yoga ["union with the divin"] is India's unique contribution to the world. It is a more intense form of prayer and religious worship. It is a way of reaching out to God [Source] through intense personal effort. Yoga aims to build a bridge between the world in which we live and the world from which we came. It attempts to reverse the process of creation and connect us to our Source.

It gives us an opportunity to transcend our limitations and realize who we are and what our true potentials are. Yoga has been the applied science of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism for the last several centuries. In this video you will come to know about the true meaning of yoga and how it was practiced in the ancient world.

The History of Yoga

Our knowledge of yoga comes to us mostly from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, who lived some time in the early Christian era. The Yoga Sutras is the most authoritative ancient scriptures on yoga. However, Patanjali did not invent the system of yoga. It was practiced on the Indian subcontinent much before Patanjali by the followers of Jainism, Shaivism [Hinduism], Buddhism, and many ascetic traditions -- some of which were later integrated into the Vedic religion.

The Indus people were probably familiar with some aspects of yoga. Followers of the Samkhya School used yoga as the means to liberate themselves from the hold of Prakriti. The Samkhya philosophy was probably the oldest of the Indian traditions to use yoga for spiritual liberation.

Jain Yoga

The Jain yoga is also considered to be one of the most ancient yoga systems practiced on the Indian subcontinent. It focused more on self-denial and restraint to the extent of self-mortification as the means to liberation.

Buddhist Yoga

The Buddha was against hurting the body for spiritual aims. He advocated a softer approach or the Middle Path in which the emphasis was more on using right means to achieve right ends. The ancient Buddhist yoga consisted of the practice of dhyana [jhana] or "meditation" and becoming aware of breath and bodily sensations to cultivate mindfulness.

Vedic Tradition

The third part of the video deals with yoga in the Vedic tradition and concepts of yoga mentioned in some of the earliest Upanishads:

• Katha Upanishad
• Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
• Svetasvatara Upanished

It also describes how Vedic rituals were internalized for the purposes of self-realization.

• Justin Blaha through Prof. Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II (OpenSourceBuddhism.org). This piece offers a basic but fairly thorough introduction to the ancient Jain tradition and compares it with core aspects of Buddhism. Similarities and differences are soon apparent.

Samkhya was one of the six "orthodox" systems (astika or those systems which, unlike Buddhism and Jainism, recognize Vedic authority). The major text of this Vedic school is the extant Samkhya Karika written by Ishvara Krishna, circa 200 ACE. This text (Karika 70) identifies Samkhya as a tantra. And its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the Tantras as a body of literature as well as tantric practices. There are no purely Samkhya schools existing today in Hinduism, but its influence is still felt in the yoga and Vedanta schools (Hinduwebsite.com; DefenderofHindus).

Venus in Thailand comments on the relationship between Samkhya and the Upanishads versus Buddhist Abhidharma and the Sutras, reacting to a college lecture. They are attempts by human beings to list and explain all the phenomena in the universe, both physical and mental, in a manner that is far more advanced than modern science. She also advocates trying to preserve the original palm leaf Pali texts of South East Asia, especially those from Thailand, on which Buddhism was first inscribed.

JHANA: Directly Seeing Realms of Existence

The Buddha teaching forest monks to meditate (buddhachannel.tv)

[The 31 Planes of Existence in Buddhist cosmology are literal worlds, not theoretical. They are all directly visible to the person who becomes proficient in serenity meditation -- the jhanas.] The attainment of any [of the eight] jhanas ["meditative absorptions"] comes about through a twofold process of development. On one side the states obstructive to it, called its factors of abandonment, have to be eliminated. On the other hand the states composing it, called its factors of possession, have to be acquired.

In the case of the first jhana, the factors of abandonment are the Five Hindrances, and the factors of possession are the five basic jhana factors. Both are alluded to in the standard formula for the first jhana. The opening phrase refers to the abandonment of the hindrances and the subsequent portion enumerates the jhana factors:

"Quite secluded from sense pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states of mind, one enters and dwells in the first absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained [attention] with rapture and happiness born of seclusion" (M.i,1818; Vbh.245).

This chapter will first discuss the Five Hindrances and their abandonment then investigate the factors of absorption both individually and by way of their combined contribution to the attainment of the first jhana. The chapter closes with some remarks on the ways of perfecting the first absorption, a necessary preparation for the further development of concentration.... More>>

THE FULL TEACHING

1. Introduction

The Doctrinal Context of Jhana

Etymology of Jhana

Jhana and Samadhi

2. The Preparation for Jhana

The Moral Foundation for Jhana

The Good Friend and the Subject of Meditation

Choosing a Suitable Dwelling

3. The First Jhana and its Factors

The Abandoning of the Hindrances

The Factors of the First Jhana

Perfecting the First Jhana

4. The Higher Jhanas

The Higher Fine-material Jhanas

The Immaterial Jhanas

The Jhanas and Rebirth

5. Jhanas and the Supramundane

The Way of Wisdom

The Two Vehicles

Supramundane Jhana

The Jhanic Level of the Path and Fruit

6. Jhana and the Noble Disciples

Seven Types of Disciples

Jhana and the Arahant ["enlightened person"]

• Source: Ven. Henepola Gunaratana from Wheel Publication No. 351/353 (Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, 1988) -- an abridged version of The Path of Serenity and Insight: An Explanation of the Buddhist Jhanas (© 1985 Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi). Published in the Wheel series by arrangement with publisher (© 1988 BPS). Republished for free distribution.