A Fractal Representation of Pi… In a Crop Circle

I usually don’t cover stories like this on astroengine, but I thought this was pretty captivating. A crop circle, measuring 150 metres in diameter appeared in a field last month, and at first no one knew what it meant, and filed it under “C” for “Cool Looking Circle.” That was until a retired astrophysicist saw the aerial photograph above the Wiltshire countryside near the village of Wroughton. Mike Reed realised that far from being an interesting pattern, it was in fact a graphical representation of the mathematical symbol π (Greek letter pi). Complex crop circles have appeared before featuring fractal patterns, but this one is a geometric shape that accurately depicts the first ten digits of π. (π = 3.141592653)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4e77b3b57627.jpg[/atsimg]

Source


I've never posted anything in the Alien forum before, but i thought this was interesting.

Did a couple searches on ATS and found nothing on it.

Man made or not, this is one clever crop circle.

Amazing!
This cc definately has some umpf in it.
Very complex meaning AND hard to do.
Great find!

I don't understand why an Extra-terrestrial race, among other things, would do that. Pi? Really? We already know that one! GIVE US ANOTHER!!!

(I think this is some clever people, not ET. And in fact, it's really not that clever. It seems pretty basic.)

edit to add: I have nothing against your thread, in fact, I'm glad to see that people still post things about crop circles. Just, the fact of the matter remains that it is relatively simple.

[edit on 23-11-2009 by Agree2Disagree]

[edit on 23-11-2009 by Agree2Disagree]

I will add that only the first 10 digits of pie were used? we have computers that calculate pi waaaay past the 10th digit... and if alien technology was used wouldn't the crop circle be a perfect circle ... doesn't make sense really

Wasn't really tryin to turn this into a "who done it" thread, but i guess that's inevitable with anything crop circle related.

To all you flamers, I am sorry this isnt up to your standards, but really it is kind of interesting that someone took the time to portray Pi in this manner, its not like they just wrote out the numbers, and be honest who here would have recognized that as Pi without being told? to me that makes it some what clever.

[edit on 11/23/2009 by Alaskan Man]

Why does poor Euler's number and sqrt(-1) get left out of so much of this nonsense? Everyone likes phi and pi. Poor e and i, so numerologically unpopular. I guess they're too geeky to hang with the cool constants.

[edit on 11/23/2009 by EnlightenUp]

reply to post by conspiracyrus


I agree. pi is infinite so the crop circle should've never stopped getting bigger. As a matter of fact, they should still be adding to it right now. Ya that's what real aliens would do.

removed.

[edit on 11/23/2009 by Alaskan Man]

reply to post by Alaskan Man


I am sorry if I gave the impression of being a troll or flamer. I didn't mean it as such. I just stated my opinion very bluntly.

On another note, I think if it was a more complex formula it may seem more 'clever'. It seems relatively simple to me and I think if I hadn't read the article and simply pondered over the circle itself, I could have came up with its relation to Pi in a matter of weeks or even days.

reply to post by Agree2Disagree



I kind of agree with you. pi is taught in what grade eight? but it's a picture of it, not the numbers, that add to it's "value", manmade or not.

...i for one would never have recognized it as pie. well maybe not never, but humans only live a hundreed years or so max so it might as well be.

Originally posted by heyo
reply to post by conspiracyrus

 

I agree. pi is infinite so the crop circle should've never stopped getting bigger. As a matter of fact, they should still be adding to it right now. Ya that's what real aliens would do.

Actually thats what the "..." at the end of the formation signifies. It keeps going and going

reply to post by heyo


so your saying that "aliens" would tell us about what we already know? once again doesn't make sense

reply to post by EnlightenUp


Euler's constant isn't e. Euler's constant is the difference between the harmonic series and the natural logarithm. It comes out to 0.577... whatever (it goes on forever, of course).

e is called Euler's *number* and it's 2.718281828...

I'd be *very* interested in seeing how a crop circle could represent i. I think that would be a tough one.

Originally posted by chiron613
reply to post by EnlightenUp

 

Euler's constant isn't e. Euler's constant is the difference between the harmonic series and the natural logarithm. It comes out to 0.577... whatever (it goes on forever, of course).

Hehe. 'Deed you are correct there.

Silly slip of the keys on my part.



If only that were the silliest thing I had ever done in life.

Edit: I fixed it up there for you.

[edit on 11/23/2009 by EnlightenUp]

Seems to me the crop circle makers think we're monkeys if they are using simple things like a representation of pi. Then again, all anyone has done so far is gabble and gawk and point; has anyone tried to reply to a circle, or make some sign we get it?

i agree wholeheartedly agree2dis, that it is simple in design and this concept is important to note. whether or not the guy who figured this out was an astrophysicist, we can agree that he was pretty clever. now whoever (or "whatver" sorry couldnt resist) designed that could have been of average intelligence, and posessing basic knowledge.

its what my girlfriend and i call the "pie and coffee factor" let me explain

if you are discussing the possibility that someone is either trying to trick you, send you a message through subtext or a subliminal, it is important to ask yourself "could the idea for this supposed trickery have been conceived easily over a cup of coffee and a slice of pie?" (as opposed to taking a group of geniuses working round the clock with supercomputers)

when you put this circle up to that test, you find that the design would have been finished while the pie was still warm, presuming the artist didnt stir his coffee with his compass. at the same time the original intent of the design is nearly impossible to spot, and only the keenest observer would ever pick up on it. such is the nature of art.

by the way: coffee and pie factor is indeed a reference to Twin Peaks. look it up. it has aliens!

Originally posted by heyo
I agree. pi is infinite

If by 'infinite' you mean that pi can be expressed as a non-terminating decimal, then sure...

Every other real number can also be expressed as a non-termintaing decimal as well.

In that respect, there's nothing special about pi.

reply to post by tezzajw


The crop circle does represent a "non-terminating decimal" though. The 3 small circles at top of the overall crop circle represent an ellipsis(...) which represents the missing numerical values in this visual demonstration of Pi.

Originally posted by tezzajw

Originally posted by heyo
I agree. pi is infinite

If by 'infinite' you mean that pi can be expressed as a non-terminating decimal, then sure...

Every other real number can also be expressed as a non-termintaing decimal as well.

In that respect, there's nothing special about pi.

On the contrary, perhaps he could have expressed it more clearly but what makes Pi different from 1.000 (and if you mean exactly 1 you can keep adding zeroes was your point), is that you can stop adding zeroes o that number at any point and it will be accurate as it's a rational number. What makes Pi "special" is that it's an irrational number and you can't stop adding decimals and still have it be completely precise.

I don't think this was that hard to figure out, the only hard part might be deducing the circle is broken into 10 equal "pie slices" and even that's not to hard do deduce by taking the 2 closest steps and seeing how many wedges of that size will fit on the circle.

The crop circle makers have some good creativity, this is a little different twist.

Originally posted by Inediblebulk
has anyone tried to reply to a circle, or make some sign we get it?

That... might not be a bad idea. the only problem would be how would we know which circle to reply to, if any at all?

[edit on 11/24/09 by Redajin]