Life of Pi

Pi gets his name, Piscine, from an old Olympic swimming pool in Paris dating back to 1776. The Piscine Deligny was the last floating pool in Paris when it mysteriously sank to the bottom of the Seine in 1993 for unexplained reasons. The concept of a floating pool, especially one in which sits atop a river before sinking below it, adds an aura of mystique to the enigma that is Pi and mirrors the multilayered nature of his story.

The second meaning of Pi is in its mathematical application. Pi is an irrational number meaning that it is non-repeating and non-terminating. Pi acknowledges this as much when he describes his experiences at Petit Seminaire school, where his nickname developed. Writing his name, “Pi,” on the board with the addendum “3.14,” Pi recalls, “In that elusive, irrational number with which scientists try to understand the universe, I found refuge” (24). Pi refers to this moment as “a new beginning” and his “Medina” moment (22). Medina refers to the city where the Prophet Muhammad and the early Muslims migrated to escape persecution. Pi’s belief in the harmony and order provided by religion contrasts with the mathematical constant pi. However, the idea that irrationality, as represented by pi, should be a tool to explain the universe is consistent with his view on the limits of reason and rationality.