We celebrate pi, the most popular irrational number, on March 14. But not all is peaceful and easy for pi. This episode first revisits a quirky math anecdote about how one state voted to change the value of pi, then dives into the reasons why some math folk think we should be celebrating tau — 6.28… — instead of pi.

Resources for this episode

Transcript

The Legal Values of Pi by David Singmaster (behind a paywall)

The Death of Archimedes, as recounted by Plutarch 

A history of the Indiana Pi Bill by Edray Goins