¶ Bubbles in the Wake of a Ship
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Bubbles in the Wake of a Ship:
"I remember looking at the ship’s wake which was all white. The wake is white because of different refractions of light, and that whiteness was refracted by bubbles. I said, ‘How many bubbles am I looking at?’ I made some quick estimates. I tried to count the bubbles in a spoonful. I found I was getting into the multi-billions, into astronomical numbers.
“So then I said, ‘each one of these little bubbles is a sphere, and I have been taught that in order to design a sphere I have to employ pi.’ I had learned by mathematical logic that pi is a transcendental irrational and can’t be resolved. I said, ‘To how many places does nature carry out pi as she manufactures each bubble before deciding that because she cannot get a final answer she must make an arbitrary or artificial cut off and thus attempt to sneak out a fake or imperfect bubble.’ I said, ‘I don’t think nature is using pi.’ Nature is too elegant to put up with such hidden tricks.”
