Diameter Quotes (2)
De Morgan was explaining to an actuary what was the chance that a certain proportion of some group of people would at the end of a given time be alive; and quoted the actuarial formula, involving p [pi], which, in answer to a question, he explained stood for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. His acquaintance, who had so far listened to the explanation with interest, interrupted him and exclaimed, 'My dear friend, that must be a delusion, what can a circle have to do with the number of people alive at a given time?'
Mathematical Recreations and Problems (1896), 180; See also De Morgan's Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 172.
See also: | Anecdote (14) | Answer (25) | Chance (40) | Circle (3) | Circumference (2) | Death (95) | Augustus De Morgan (21) | Explanation (26) | Formula (16) | Group (3) | Interest (6) | Interrupt (2) | Number (46) | Pi (3) | Proportion (10) | Question (52) | Ratio (3)
The Biblical value of pi, by comparison, is exactly three, as is clear from a verse in 1 Kings vii 23: 'and he made a molten sea, ten cubits from brim to brim, and his height was five cubit; and a line of thirty cubits did encompass him round about.'
— Eli Maor
From To Infinity and Beyond (1991), 4.
