My Science School

          The Greek letter ‘pi’ is a unique number and is defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This number is independent of the size of a circle and for all practical purposes its approximate value is taken as 22/7 or 3.1416. In fact, the fraction 22/7 is slightly greater in value than ‘pi’.

          For many centuries mathematicians have been fascinated by its unique characteristic. The strangest thing about this number is that nobody has been able to calculate its exact value. Computer scientists have now computed pi to over one million decimal places.

          At one time the scientists tried to prove that ‘pi’ was a fraction. When any fraction is written in a decimal number, the same digits always appear over and over again in a special pattern. If ‘pi’ were a fraction, there would be a repeating pattern to its digits. But strangely enough a repeating pattern in ‘pi’ could not be found. Finally in 1761, a Swiss mathematician named Johann Heinrich Lambert settled the matter once and for all. He proved that pi is not a fraction.

          Now the question arises what is the significance of ‘pi’ in our daily life? Suppose you have an automobile tyre whose diameter is one metre. If you want to find its circumference, you can find it out by measuring with a tape. Another way of finding the circumference is to multiply the diameter by this strange number ‘pi’. This number is used to calculate the circumference of all the circular objects.

          The mathematicians are still engaged in research in this direction to see if the digits are arranged in any special way. 

          Any positive integer which is greater  than one and divisible by only itself is called a prime number. For example 2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29, etc. are all prime number – numbers that cannot be split by division by any other number except 1 and the particular number itself.

          The prime numbers lie at the very roots of arithmetic and have always fascinated those dealing with figures. We can take the sequence of the above given series of prime numbers as far as we like, but we will never find a prime number divisible by another. Over the centuries, the world’s greatest mathematicians have tried to do so and always fail, although they have also been unable to prove that no such number exists.

          Every positive integer greater than one can be expressed as the product of only a single set of prime numbers. Despite the fact that prime numbers have been recognized since at least 300 B.C. when they were first studied by the Greek mathematician Euclid and Eratosthenes. Still these numbers have not yet unfolded certain mysteries relating to them.

          There is infinity of prime numbers and in theory anything may happen in infinity. But so far theorists have not been able to even find any particular rule or theory governing the gaps between prime numbers, which still remains a great mathematical mystery.

          However, the highest known prime number was discovered in 1992 by analysts at AEA Technology’s Harwell Laboratory, Oxon. The number contains 227832 digits, enough to fill over 10 fullscap pages.