335
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_38
Chapter 38
The Last Numbers of Emptiness
38.1 Science Laid Bare
Ecologically mirroring the search for the last digit of π, an unexplained infinity at
once enlists the perfectly spelled-out dialectic between the number 1, and all that is
defined as irrational, inexplicable, and blurred. When we say that Pi equals approximately 3.14, we could also say, essentially, between 3.1408 and 3.1429
1
or “3.125 in
Babylon (1900–1600 BC) and 3.1605 in ancient Egypt (1650 BC)”.
2
The actual
number of digits, as yet uncalculated, might well span trillions of non-repetitive
sequences beyond the decimal point. Xiaojing Ye suggests that “39 digits are sufficient to perform most cosmological calculations, because that’s the accuracy necessary to calculate the circumference of the observable universe to within an atom’s
diameter” (typically of a hydrogen molecule, number one of a known 118 chemical
elements/atomic numbers on the periodic table).
3
Because of electrostatic interactions (van der Waals interaction), Pi, out in the cosmos, inside our bodies, and
everywhere, seems to satisfy our longing for interpolation. Of great relevance to this
arena of the irrational was the Dutch physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals
(1837–1923) who got himself wonderfully immersed in the pursuit of Irish chemist
Thomas Andrews’ (1813–1885) experiments on phases between gasses and liquids,
with an emphatic discovery of so-called critical points,
4
what we might think of as
intermolecular forces on the way to the myriad Pi’s of the world.
Those forces that van der Waals pursued, in turn, appear to pursue every living
organism, as defined by Pi, in the sense that there are infinities that cannot be
1 See https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/approximating-pi.html, Accessed January 14, 2020.
2 See Professor Xiaojing Ye’s “The search for the value of pi,” The Conversation, March 11, 2016,
http://theconversation.com/the-search-for-the-value-of-pi-55744, Accessed January 15, 2019.
3 Xiaojing Ye, ibid.
4 Andrews, Thomas (1869) “The Bakerian lecture: on the continuity of the gaseous and liquid states
of matter,’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, 159 : 575–590.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_38
Chapter 38
The Last Numbers of Emptiness
38.1 Science Laid Bare
Ecologically mirroring the search for the last digit of π, an unexplained infinity at
once enlists the perfectly spelled-out dialectic between the number 1, and all that is
defined as irrational, inexplicable, and blurred. When we say that Pi equals approximately 3.14, we could also say, essentially, between 3.1408 and 3.1429
1
or “3.125 in
Babylon (1900–1600 BC) and 3.1605 in ancient Egypt (1650 BC)”.
2
The actual
number of digits, as yet uncalculated, might well span trillions of non-repetitive
sequences beyond the decimal point. Xiaojing Ye suggests that “39 digits are sufficient to perform most cosmological calculations, because that’s the accuracy necessary to calculate the circumference of the observable universe to within an atom’s
diameter” (typically of a hydrogen molecule, number one of a known 118 chemical
elements/atomic numbers on the periodic table).
3
Because of electrostatic interactions (van der Waals interaction), Pi, out in the cosmos, inside our bodies, and
everywhere, seems to satisfy our longing for interpolation. Of great relevance to this
arena of the irrational was the Dutch physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals
(1837–1923) who got himself wonderfully immersed in the pursuit of Irish chemist
Thomas Andrews’ (1813–1885) experiments on phases between gasses and liquids,
with an emphatic discovery of so-called critical points,
4
what we might think of as
intermolecular forces on the way to the myriad Pi’s of the world.
Those forces that van der Waals pursued, in turn, appear to pursue every living
organism, as defined by Pi, in the sense that there are infinities that cannot be
1 See https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/approximating-pi.html, Accessed January 14, 2020.
2 See Professor Xiaojing Ye’s “The search for the value of pi,” The Conversation, March 11, 2016,
http://theconversation.com/the-search-for-the-value-of-pi-55744, Accessed January 15, 2019.
3 Xiaojing Ye, ibid.
4 Andrews, Thomas (1869) “The Bakerian lecture: on the continuity of the gaseous and liquid states
of matter,’ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, 159 : 575–590.