“Dig it: I think I just figured out the number of infinity.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh not really of course. But it’s a grabber of a topic sentence, huh?”

“Again, say what?”

“Bear with me. Consider the circle.”

“Must I?”

“Very funny. If you want to calculate the circumference of any circle, the formula is 2πr. You know: 2 times the radius times pi.”

(hand in the air, palm outward): “I think you’re going intellectual on me.”

“Shut up. So 2πr is the same as 2 times r times π. And 2 times the radius is exactly the diameter. So you could say the formula for figuring the circumference of any circle is the diameter times pi.”

“Which the long way of stating…?”

“Sorry. I’m just developing this, so I need to rehearse it. You’re my audience.”

(mumbling): “…more like your dummy.”

“Just a minute. So if circumference is diameter times pi, then another way of telling the truth is to say that if you divide the circumference of any circle by its own diameter, you always get this value we call pi. So pi isn’t a number as much as it is a ratio. A relationship. The way you torque a line into a circle.”

“Okaaay…”

“Now consider the circle.”

“Jeez. I just wanted coffee.”

“I’ll owe you. Stay with me. A circle is actually a polygon with an infinite number of infinitely small sides. Yes?”

“Yes!”

“And whenever someone or some computer or some collection of computers sets out to calculate the value of pi, he/she/it/they always discover that the calculation is endless and doesn’t repeat. Oh I love that.”

“You love it, why?”

“Because if the division did come to an end or the numbers started repeating, well, that would indicate that a finite number of small sides could make a circle. Which isn’t so. Pi has to be infinite or there’s be no such thing as a circle.”

“And that makes you conclude pi is the number of infinity.”

“Doesn’t it?”

“The problem with your reasoning is that numbers aren’t real. They’re a human concept. They’re not part of the actual world.”

“Oh no. Precisely wrong. Reality is clearly our subjective experience of it. Nothing else is certain. We can argue about what a car is, or the color red, or the concept of love. But no one disagrees about 2.”