Ask people what π makes them think of and you'll hear "circles", "3.14" and, quite often, "that film with the tiger". A site about π can't pretend not to have heard of it. So here is a short note about Life of Pi, with no spoilers.
The book and the film
Life of Pi is a novel by the Canadian writer Yann Martel. It was first published in 2001 by Knopf Canada, came out in the UK with Canongate in 2002, and won the Booker Prize that same year (it was called the Man Booker Prize back then). It has sold millions of copies around the world since.
In 2012 the director Ang Lee turned it into a film, with Suraj Sharma, in his very first film role, as the teenage Pi. The film won four Oscars, including Best Director for Ang Lee, which was more than any other film of that year.
A boy named after a swimming pool
The hero's full name is Piscine Molitor Patel. He is named after a swimming pool in Paris (piscine is the French word for a swimming pool). He grows up in Pondicherry, in the south of India, where his father runs the town's zoo.
A name like Piscine is a gift to anyone who enjoys teasing, and his classmates soon turn it into a rude joke. So when he starts at a new school, Pi decides to take charge of his own name. When his turn comes to introduce himself, he walks up to the blackboard, writes his name and underlines the first two letters. Then he adds π = 3.14 and draws a big circle with a line across the middle: its diameter. In the next lesson he does it all again, and in the one after that. By the end of the day, everyone calls him Pi.
We have a soft spot for this scene. This whole site is a row of chalkboards, and Pi did the original chalkboard trick: he looked at the most famous number in maths and decided it was his name.
Why a never-ending number?
π is the distance around a circle divided by the distance across it. Its digits go on forever and never settle into a repeating pattern. Mathematicians call a number like that irrational: it can't be written as one whole number divided by another. You can write down as many digits as you like (we keep 100 billion of them), and you will never reach the end, or find the part where it starts again.
That makes it a fitting name for the hero of this book. Life of Pi is a story about belief and about things that can't be measured or proved. It is also a story about stories: which ones we choose to believe, and why. Pi grows up a Hindu, and as a teenager he decides to follow Christianity and Islam as well, all three at once. A boy who refuses to pick just one answer, named after a number that refuses to end, feels about right.
There is one more π-shaped detail that readers love to point out. After a shipwreck, Pi spends 227 days adrift in a lifeboat, and 22/7 is the old schoolroom fraction for π. We can't tell you whether that was planned, but it's hard to miss once you've seen it.
And the tiger?
Yes, there is a tiger. A Bengal tiger called Richard Parker ends up in the same lifeboat, which makes for an unusual travel companion. That's all we'll say about the voyage. The ending is worth reaching on your own, so you won't find it here.
Your name is probably in π too
Pi took his name from π. You can go the other way and look for your name in π. On a phone keypad every letter has a digit: A, B and C are on the 2, D, E and F on the 3, and so on. Spell a name on the keypad and you get a number. PATEL becomes 72835, and a number that short turns up in π very early. Most first names are short enough to be found, and plenty of surnames too.
- Find your own name, number or birthday in the first 100 billion digits.
- Browse the name pages, where about 2,000 popular first names are spelled out and placed.
- Read a short history of π, from Archimedes to the latest record.
A fan's nod
This note is a fan's nod to a book and a film we like, in text and links only: no covers, posters, stills or logos. Hidden in π is not affiliated with or endorsed by the author, publisher or studio behind Life of Pi. If you've never read it, it's a fine book to pick up, and the film is a good one to watch with the family.
Sources
- Life of Pi, on Wikipedia: the novel, its hero, his name, his three faiths and the voyage.
- Life of Pi, the 2012 film, on Wikipedia: the director, the cast and the four Oscars.
- Life of Pi, on The Booker Prizes: the 2002 winner, its UK publication and its sales.
- Life of Pi, from Canongate, the book's UK publisher.
- Life of Pi, chapters 1 to 15, on CliffsNotes: the blackboard scene, from chapter 5 of the novel.
- Pi, on Wikipedia: why π's digits never end or repeat.