Why is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter important?

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Why did the first person even ask what it was?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

1 Greek Potter to another 500BC, “I see your potter’s wheel is spinning well. Did you ever wonder how much faster it could go if you changed the size of the drive wheel?”

“Look at that, the bigger wheel makes it go faster.”

“I wonder how much faster its going. Here, only pump the pedal once and let’s measure.”

“I wonder if there is some ratio to the drive wheel size to how fast it spins…”

“Let wrap a rope around the wheel and compare its circumference to its diameter..”

“Look at that, on both drive wheels the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is the same. Something like a 3 and change. That would mean the ratio is a little more than 6 and a quarter based on the radius.”