-1

Some traditions say, based on a Gemmorah in Taanis 9a (also מדרש רבה נשא י' ו', זוהר פנחס רכ"א א, and more):

"ליכא מידי דלא רמיזא באורייתא"

"There is nothing that is not alluded to in the Torah"

That is, everything can be derived from the written Torah (the Pentateuch of 304,805 letters, and Gr"a adds from Parashat Bereshis alone etc). Many tried (and succeeded) to find certain integers, such as numbers and dates.

In what way can the irrational and infinite number Pi be derived from the written Torah?

(to clarify, the question is not about approximation of Pi, it is about the possibility to derive an irrational number from a list of letters)

Improve this question
23
  • 3
    Just because it can be done in principle doesn't mean anyone knows how to do it in practice.
    – Heshy
    Jul 30, 2018 at 5:38
  • Are you accepting answers from Nach? In that case it’s trivial - the Gemara already discusses it.
    – DonielF
    Jul 30, 2018 at 5:39
  • 1
    @DonielF well, math textbooks define it in a finite number of characters.
    – Heshy
    Jul 30, 2018 at 7:02
  • 1
    Gemara Eruvin. Pi was not irrational in theire mind. The discovery of rational-irrational concept is posterior
    – kouty
    Jul 30, 2018 at 11:37
  • 1
    Just because PI is irrational (and even transcendental), doesn't mean you cannot describe it accurately in a finite number of syllables. Just as an example, there are numerous infinite series that converge to Pi. E.g. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz_formula_for_%CF%80
    – Nic
    Jul 30, 2018 at 14:11

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
17

Pi can be derived from the Torah by rolling up a Torah scroll and measuring the end's diameter and circumference. The ratio between them will be pi.

Improve this answer
7
  • 4
    No joke! See Bava Batra 14a
    – Double AA ♦
    Jul 30, 2018 at 11:41
  • it is about the possibility to derive an irrational number from a list of letters - I guessed he asked for it! :-D
    – Danny Schoemann
    Jul 30, 2018 at 11:59
  • 1
    Technically this would be a linear spiral, but you have my upvote.
    – Nic
    Jul 30, 2018 at 14:08
  • 1
    Hah! One of the great Ma'asei Hashem! No matter who rolls a Torah, no matter how loosely or tightly it's rolled and no matter what the sixe of the Torah is, you get the same number by dividing the circumference by its diameter. Seems like a nes (miracle) to me! Who needs Euclid?
    – DanF
    Jul 30, 2018 at 14:23
  • 2
    This answer is being discussed on meta.
    – Monica Cellio
    Jan 21, 2019 at 17:40

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .