Comic #6506: pi-2

Description

Here’s a detailed description of the comic:

Panel 1: A starry night sky serves as the background. Two characters, one with short hair and a yellow hoodie (on the left) and another with curly hair and glasses (on the right), are having a conversation. The first character asks, "Why do you think π appears in all these weird equations that have nothing to do with circles?" The second character responds with "Does it?"

Panel 2: The character with curly hair explains, "Think of it like this: suppose in ancient Babylon, instead of getting weird about geometry, they got weird about infinite series."

Panel 3: The conversation continues, "They do the series ( 1 + \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{3} + ), and they find it's π/2. Then they do the one that goes ( 1 - \frac{1}{3} + \frac{1}{5} - ), and they find it's π/4."

Panel 4: The curly-haired character elaborates, "They keep fussing around and keep finding all these different series that all seem to share a factor in common. It's not a nice whole number – it's somewhere between 3 and 4, and it keeps popping up."

Panel 5: The character with curly hair continues, "Eventually they work the number out to many digits. Then some dorkwad mathematician comes along and proves that the 'infinite series factor' is also a fundamental aspect of circles."

Panel 6: The other character reacts, "That's weird. I guess I think of constants as being about something then popping up elsewhere mysteriously. But actually, they're just… whatever it is they are."

Panel 7: The curly-haired character has a contemplative expression, and the character with the yellow hoodie mentions, "God mathematics is spooky."

Panel 8: The curly-haired character concludes, "I believe God is lazy and just picked half a dozen irrationals to recycle over and over."

The comic captures a playful and humorous discussion about mathematics and its seemingly mystical, universal constants, particularly π (pi).