User:Panoramics/sandbox

Title: Pi and Euler's number in the Bible.

In certain verses of the Bible, approximations for the mathematical constants π and e (Euler's number) can be found using gematria. Those approximations are accurate up to 4 decimal places. However, the approximations are off by a power of 10 and the formula used is quite arbitrary.

Contents

 * 1Mathematical background
 * 2The Bible verses
 * 3Gematria
 * 4Discussion
 * 5See also
 * 6References

Mathematical background[edit]
The constant π can be defined as the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a circle. Being an irrational number, π has an infinite decimal expansion. Throughout the centuries, humanity has tried to approximate π as accurately as possible. Before Archimedes (250 BC), the best approximations for π were  and  which are accurate up to 2 significant figures. The actual decimal expansion of π starts with 3.14159...

The constant e (Euler's number) can be defined as the limit of  as  approaches infinity. Contrary to π which is known from antiquity, Euler's number was first discovered by Jacob Bernoulli in 1683. Euler's number is the base of the natural logarithm. It's decimal expansion starts with 2.71828....

Together with the imaginary unit i, π and e lie at the basis of mathematics.

The Bible verses[edit]
The first relevant Bible verse is Genesis 1:1. It is the first verse of the Book of Genesis, which is in turn the first book of the Bible. In English, the verse reads as follows:"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)"The Book of Genesis was originally written in Hebrew. Being part of the Torah, it was written before 250 BC. The other relevant verse is John 1:1. This is the starting verse of the Gospel of John, which is one of the four gospels at the start of the New Testament of the Bible. The verse reads as follows:"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)"The Gospel of John was written in Greek. It was written before 110 AD.

Both verses contain the phrase "in the beginning". This phrase is also the Hebrew name of the Book of Genesis.

Gematria[edit]
In gematria, letters and words are given numerical values using an alphanumerical cipher. The value of a word is calculated by adding the values of the individual letters of the word. Hebrew and Greek gematria charts In order to obtain the approximations for π and e, the following formula has to be used:

As a result, the formula gives for Genesis 1:1:

and for John 1:1:

When we omit the powers of 10 and round to 4 decimal places, we obtain 3.1416 and 2.7183 respectively. These numbers correspond exactly to the (rounded) values of π and e, to 4 decimal places.

Discussion[edit]
According to some the phenomenon might be a hint of something deeper, but others think that it is a coincidence.

See also[edit]

 * Apophenia
 * Mathematical coincidence
 * Texas sharpshooter fallacy

References[edit]

 * 1) ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i
 * 2) ^ Jump up to:a b c d e
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 * 12) ^ John 1:1, Douay-Rheims
 * 13) ^ John 1:1, KJV
 * 14) ^ John 1:1, RSV
 * 15) ^ John 1:1, NIV
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 * 18) ^ "TorahCalc | Explanations of Gematria Methods (with Charts)". www.torahcalc.com. Retrieved 2022-08-10.