Most of the Geeks Are Wannabee Geeks And Many Of The Real Geeks Wannabee Masters Of The Universe But Not All of Them

At least that's how it seems when the online wannabee geeks and the geeks who spend their time hanging out with the kewl kids start going on about something like "Pi Day."

One of my friends, who was a full professor of Mathematics at a pretty good University, once told me that she didn't think pi had any reality outside of human perception but was just something we used to deal with things.  She wasn't a mathematical Platonist.  She said that she thought a lot of the use of it in things like the social sciences was of entirely dubious reality and she suspected their acceptance depended on people pretending they understood math that they didn't.  She went on for quite a while after I couldn't follow her anymore, I think some of the others present at that time got a lot more of it than I did.  I asked if it was useful for measuring circles and objects based on circles.  She said it was useful for coming up with estimates that sometimes worked.

She was a pure mathematician, after all.  Her several forays into collaborating with scientists who wanted to find applications for math brought with it some skepticism, though she did think some of it was potentially useful.   Other than that, I think the most practical thing she ever did with mathematics was for cooking.  She was a great baker, making things no one else I know would ever try and coming up with incredibly good original recipes.  Her raw blueberry pie was nothing short of miraculous and I wish I'd gotten her recipe.

Update:  As I recall one of the things she said is that pi had no actual location on a number line but that a circle was still complete and had an actual diameter.  I think it was right before I stopped being able to follow what she said.   It was more than 20 years ago.