Pi Crop Circle

Posted by Miss Cellania in Arts & Crafts on June 19, 2008 at 10:30 am


A “mind-boggling” crop circle has been spotted in a barley field in Wiltshire, England. The design is a code that represents the first ten digits of pi.

Michael Reed, an astrophysicist, said: “The tenth digit has even been correctly rounded up. The little dot near the centre is the decimal point.

“The code is based on 10 angular segments with the radial jumps being the indicator of each segment.

“Starting at the centre and counting the number of one-tenth segments in each section contained by the change in radius clearly shows the values of the first 10 digits in the value of pi.”

It doesn’t seem so “mind-boggling” to me. I should think that math geeks would be exactly the sort of people to join a crop circle maker group. Link -via Digg


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COMMENT

14 comments to "Pi Crop Circle"

  1. ukblows
    June 19th, 2008 at 10:41 am

    Wow, crop circles. You're so damned interesting, England!

    SNORE.

  2. roger
    June 19th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    Miss Cellania: I agree completely about it not being "mind boggling". They speak as if the digits of Pi as if they are some esoteric secret beyond the grasp of a lowly prankster. I've always thought the circle-artists were math-aware (lots of symmetries and reflections, and the surveying skill that goes into executing the designs).

  3. Nate
    June 19th, 2008 at 11:16 am

    Ok a friend and I have a theory with all of the E.T. stuff happening, all viral marketing for the new X-Files movie. Now I could be off but it's fun to think about!

  4. Anthony
    June 19th, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    Pi is already hidden in EVERY circle. It's the circumference divided by the diameter.

  5. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    June 19th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    It's still pretty. As are many crop circles.

  6. DJ KevvyKev
    June 19th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    This crop circle looks remarkably like the cover of the new Pendulum CD "In Silico".

    I suspect rabid fans (they mostly are!) or marketing or both.

  7. ted
    June 19th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    How is it "mind-boggling"? They chose to represent PI in some abstract way. Wow.

  8. Dan Lundberg
    June 19th, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    If we weren't a base-10 civilization, would we have missed the 'message'?

  9. Jamie
    June 19th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

    I've never even remotely bought into the 'crop circles are made by aliens' thing.

    And I wish it would go away, so these could be seen as the grand, large-scale works of art that they are.

    The effort and precision that must go into making them, conceptualizing them, and planning them... That, to me, is mind boggling.

    I would never have gotten that this is a representation of Pi. My mind doesn't notice such things, and math and I don't get along. That said, if it weren't for the whole 'aliens!' controversy, I think these would get more attention for the right reasons!

  10. rainbow
    June 19th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    I don´t care if it isn´t mind-blogging. I like it.

  11. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    June 19th, 2008 at 11:34 pm

    I don't know, Jamie. Without the alien mystique, the crop circle makers would just be a bunch of vandals. I doubt people would flock to see a crop circle if they knew for sure that it was made by humans. And in this day and age, it's kind of a waste of food.

  12. Elyandarin
    June 22nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    Meh, a bit too human-centric i m o.
    Now had the constant been 2*pi, expressed in base 14, THEN I'd be intrigued...

  13. Robert B
    July 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    My idea on why PI is in the crop circle.

    http://www.PiPyramid.com

    PI is a needed part of galactic travel.

    After completing PI, I found the reason why PI is in a crop circle.

  14. samsub
    July 28th, 2008 at 3:12 am

    Why the crop circles are found in the UK and USA only? Why not in India and in China?

    samsub
    ------------------------
    Wide Circles


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