John Nash saw the symbol pi as just a Greek letter. In grad school he proudly used every Greek letter in a paper. I was asked to decorate his (film) dorm window in grease pencil, and by chance a photograph of Russell Crowe through this window became one of the most widely distributed promo stills. He's looking intent behind the equation "0 < pi < 1", straight from Nash's paper.
The reaction in my community, which I quite enjoyed, would disabuse anyone of the idea that mathematicians are less cripplingly conventional than other people. To the majority of mathematicians, pi is tied to the circle. A great UC Berkeley email thread speculated that I was trying to make Russell Crowe look like a fool.
The reaction in my community, which I quite enjoyed, would disabuse anyone of the idea that mathematicians are less cripplingly conventional than other people. To the majority of mathematicians, pi is tied to the circle. A great UC Berkeley email thread speculated that I was trying to make Russell Crowe look like a fool.