Most recent answer: 08/31/2018

Q:
You answered questions about the variability of the value of Pi "near a large mass". But your answers are just horrible. You stated that it WOULD be affected by the presence of a large mass, like near Earth. But that is utterly wrong. Pi is a mathematical constant, NOT a physical one. Mathematics is NOT affected by the mass of an object or of space-time or anything physical. Your WRONG answer is tantamount to saying that 2 is not precisely 2 if it's close to a large mass. And, by the way, while the hell do I need to have a personal URL in order to "Report Baloney"?
- Roger Garrett (age 68)
96826
A:

Hi Roger- unless the site is broken, the url requested would be the one of the alleged BS, ours in this case, not yours. Is this the answer to which you object ?

The answer to your first question is definitely yes. For the Earth, it comes out that the circumference is about an inch smaller than pi*diameter.

There's no need to make "pi" itself variable however. It's well-defined as the ratio of the circumference to the diameter on a flat part of space. It just isn't equal to that ratio on other parts of space. 

So we stated that pi itself absolutely does not change, it's a mathematical constant, just as you say. What changes is the universe's geometry, which is not that of Euclid. Was there another answerwhere we saaid something else?

Mike W.


(published on 08/31/2018)