Pi appears once again at Barbury
Castle in 2009!
Now this year on May 24, 2009, an
equally clever crop picture has just appeared near Barbury
Castle on May 24, 2009. It shows 22 circles of equal
size, arranged into 7 rings, thereby displaying a
common approximation for pi as (22 / 7) = 3.14129 instead of its
true value 3.14159:
A 22./ 7 approximation for pi
was first developed by Archimedes in the third century BC (see
/Numerical_approximations or
Proof_that_22/7), and indeed,
the "pi to ten digits" crop picture drawn last year showed an
Archimedean spiral (see
Archimedespi). At least one
other "22 / 7" crop picture has appeared previously (see
hypermaths).
Some teachers of mathematics even
have designated July 22 as "casual pi day", because its date can
be written as "22 / 7" just like the fraction!
Might this new crop picture
have any further significance, beyond teaching the majority of
people on Earth about crop pictures in an easily accessible
and funny way? Well, there will be a total solar eclipse on July
22, 2009, as well as a penumbral lunar eclipse on July 7, 2009.
Another crop picture made on the same day at Windmill Hill seems
to describe that lunar eclipse as "1-2-3-4-5-6-7" or July 7,
using eclipse symbols taken from Furze Knoll in 2008.
Hence the 7 rings shown here could stand also for "July 7" as a
lunar eclipse, while its 22 circles could stand also for "July
22" as a solar eclipse. Further study of these three new and
remarkable crop pictures over the next few days will perhaps
yield more information.
Charles Reed
(a good friend of Mike)
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