The number pi (π) is... rather unwieldy. It starts with a fairly simple '3', but then continues past the decimal place with a collection of basically random digits... Here's the first one hundred or so digits: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067

Edward J Goodwin didn't like this messiness, so he had an idea: legislate a much simpler definition of pi! Instead of that long collection of numbers, just use 3! (Or 3.2, or 4...)

Well, that was a dumb idea. But we love dumb ideas at The Wholesome Show, so we explored!

The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!