In our world of high-tech precision instruments, where we assure ourselves that perfection is attainable, it's hard to admit that we cannot truly solve a problem as simple as dividing a circle's circumference by its diameter. And yet this value, being known as Pi, has puzzled mathematicians (or people interested in Mathematics) for nearly four thousand years, generating more interest, consuming more brainpower, and filling more wastebaskets with discarded theories than any other single number.
The number, Pi, plays a central role throughout mathematics, and its actual computation to any desired accuracy should be part of the mathematical foundations acquired by a college graduate.
Pi enjoys a special status in the minds of the students, who get a kick out of unfolding its mystery.
Hey! Wait a minute! Who chose the symbol to represent this constant? And why "Pi" and not "biscuit"?
The symbol, the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, is the mostly widely recognized and used Greek letter outside of the American university fraternity and soronity system. Yet the ancient Greeks themselves did not use the symbol to signify the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Nor did the Romans, nor the Arabs, nor the Chinese. In fact, hardly anyone used any single symbol to denote this ratio until 2000 years after Archimedes studied circles. The symbol has only been used regularly in its modern meaning for the past 250 years.
Only, and I really mean "only", after William Oughtred in 1652.