Babylonian Memes

The historical glow-up of π calculations is SENDING ME! 🤣 From Babylonians with their "eh, 3 is close enough" energy to Ramanujan dropping that mind-melting formula that looks like it could calculate the coordinates to another dimension! The progression perfectly matches the boats too - from paper origami to LITERAL FLOATING CASTLE. Math nerds throughout history were like "I can make π more accurate" and then proceeded to create increasingly unhinged formulas. My favorite is Zu Chongzhi's 355/113 approximation - surprisingly accurate at 3.1415929... when π is 3.1415926... That's getting π correct to 6 decimal places with just a simple fraction! Meanwhile, modern mathematicians are calculating π to trillions of digits just because they can. The ultimate flex in the mathematical universe!

The mathematical hipster wars are raging! Top panel shows a Greek mathematician losing his mind over discovering irrational numbers with a 45-45-90 triangle (where the hypotenuse equals √2). Meanwhile, the Babylonians below are like "Bro, we knew about irrational numbers THREE THOUSAND YEARS earlier!" It's the ancient math equivalent of "I liked that band before they were cool." The Babylonians had already figured out that some numbers (like √2) can't be expressed as simple fractions, but the Greeks get all the textbook glory for "discovering" it. Classic academic colonization at work - next thing you know, the Greeks will claim they invented breathing!