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November 11, 2005

Comments

JustinBlack

My my my... What a toss! Please take care not to rip apart each other`s egos PEOPLE! I`m going outside for a walk. Kate`s coming with me! `Cuz she`s everywhere!!!

Miles

Kate Bush FTL

Hard 'n Phirm FTW!

Tony

For God's sake folks, let it go. Enjoy her voice, inflections, and love of life. Perfection lasts only fleetingly, God forever, and you momentarily.
So Kate Bush may have missed a sequence, can you walk on water? I can't. But I am able to swim in her music and completely enjoy her rhythm.
Turn your computer off, and walk outside.
It really is fantastic!

kevin lavare

none of u know pi so why even try,i challenge all of u

GNSargent

I feel I must point out that BARON's statement:

"Who says Kate is singing the digits directly after the 3? It is almost certain
these digits exist somewhere in Pi, in this order, on account of it being infinite."

is in fact incorrect. Since it is a positive value less than 4, Pi is not itself "infinite", rather its decimal expansion is infinite. Further the decimal expansion never repeats, except for isolated sequences which later diverge. This coupled with the fact that its value cannot be expressed using whole numbers and roots (ie: it's "transcendental") makes it certain that any given finite sequence of digits will ap;pear somewhere in its expansion.

Borealis

Our Kate may be meticulous in all things, but then there's this:
"Waving it's [sic] arm as the wind blows by"

Steve

You said:

I strongly doubt the omittance and alleged tripping over the numbers was anything but deliberate. I am fascinated by the possibility of it being a code of some sort.

I thought exactly the same a while back. If you look at http://www.luttrell.org.uk/pi/index.htm you will find a summary of what I discovered once I applied my little grey cells to the analysis of Pi.

nancy

Perhaps, she is chanting the numbers of pi as one would chant the name of God. Parts are unspeakable and not meant for human ears. Or, perhaps, she was going by the Biblical aproximation, which was surprisingly accurate ; ) See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi It is truly an amazing song. I strongly doubt the omittance and alleged tripping over the numbers was anything but deliberate. I am fascinated by the possibility of it being a code of some sort. What could she mean? I would love to hear her sind an extended version that lasts an hour; could you imagine?

Baron

Who says Kate is singing the digits directly after the 3? It is almost certain these digits exist somewhere in Pi, in this order, on account of it being infinite.

The song is about a man who is obsessed with Pi, the song is NOT Pi itself.

Skipping numbers could represent following his journey and obsession passing through time and then picking it back up only to find that he is still going at it.

If one were writing an essay about the Old Testament of the Bible and quoted the book of Genesis and then later quoted the book of Numbers, it would not mean that the author of the essay was claiming that the essay was the Bible itself, nor would the existence of unused passages from the Old Testament contained between those passages quoted from Genesis and Numbers make the quoted passages incorrect.

"Pi is a constant, which means if you omit (not truncate) or change the order of any of its known digits, it isn't Pi anymore."

It's interesting that you wrote an 'out' for yourself by not including truncation as a way of altering Pi. In fact, as current belief holds, Pi is endless. Therefore ANY numeric representation of Pi is merely an approximation of the value. Some approximations are closer than others. Perhaps what you meant to imply is that if one omits or changes the order of any of its known digits, then that approximation becomes less accurate.

As an artistic story about a man obsessed with Pi, the song is not inaccurate. Furthermore, as an approximation of Pi, it's pretty darn close.

And, if Pi is an endless number, it's probably a good thing that Kate stuck with only delivering an approximation of it, or it might have taken a lot longer than 12 years to have released the CD--and I didn't want to wait literally forever for the album.

jizzmatic2000

"well she missed out this much:
9986280348253421170679
and the other error you mentioned wasn't there. So i think they must of just cut that bit out whilst editing, because the lyrics were a bit repetitive.
And anyway, how dare you say the lyrics are wrong - where abouts in the song does she actually say "this is the Pi to 150 decimal places"? She just starts singing some numbers."

Hi there! I just wanted to point out that this arguement is absoutely retarded. Pi is a constant, which means if you omit (not truncate) or change the order of any of it known digits, it isn't Pi anymore.

Jame Mc Parlane

If that's what Kate says pi is, then thats good enough for me.

I'm hacking my calculator and patching my maths libraries.

Long live the Bushy Pi!

Steve

You are all missing the point. Why don't you trust that Kate makes sure things are done "just right"? The supposed mistakes in pi are all deliberate, and she has actually used them (and lots of other tricks) to embed a secret message in the song. It is our job to decode what that message is.

This anagram will prove later on (after all is revealed) that I have already succeeded in decoding the secret message:

"Heavy-hearted, contrary warmth"

melissa

This is an interestign post. I never thought to check for accuracy. woo hoo kate bush!

Heathcliff

Feh! Hard 'n Phirm has alread been there.

http://www.keithschofield.com/pi/std.html

Chris McEvoy

I think that you are right and Kate did sing "zero" rather than "three one", but she definitely missed the block of numbers and the printed lyrics are definitely wrong.

txm11013133_

Kate Bush was absolutely correct. When she sings the song, she sings "zero" and NOT 'three one'. This is merely an error in the printed lyrics.

I have listened to the song OVER AND OVER again, and I assure you, it is correctly sung and incorrectly listed in the lyrics.

The beginning of the segment in question (582319749.. as listed in the lyrics) starts at around 3 minutes and 45 seconds into the song and you will hear that she is singing, instead, 58209749...

And to be honest, I am surprised that anyone would hear that "zero" as a 'three one'. I had always heard it as a zero. I am disappointed that the printed lyrics do not accurately reflect what she is singing.

I, also, am curious as to the reasons for skipping a set of numbers. Though, that is another matter entirely.

Austin Kinsley

Kate Bush may have misplaced a few digits but it has got me into awe of pi.
A little glimpse of infinity and the relationship between a straight line and a circle that can never be precisely mapped as we live in a universe of approximations.Straght lines become circles only at infinity.

Ken Houghton

Safest bet is still that the missing 22 are a deleted verse/chorus.

The other gaffe is sad.

Agreed that there should be a special "extended" edition with the correction and the omission included.

Blair

Who cares about the mathematical accuracy of some lyrics. The important thing is the Kate Bush is back!
Like you, I think her latest album just gets better with every listen. (Although it's driving my 12-year-old son nuts to hear it every time we're on the way to soccer).
I'm now 43 and I've been a fan since the age of 17. Here in Canada, many people have never heard of Kate Bush and I try to spread the word whenever I can. They usually love the music or hate it. There seems to be no in between.
I think the last track on the second disc is absolutely brilliant. Listening to it just before my hockey game tonight seemed to give me a real boost on the ice.
(I think I'm the only guy in Canadian hockey history to get revved up on Kate Bush before a game and, of course, I'd never mention that in the locker room).
Anyways, you people in the UK are lucky to have such a talented person amongst you. If you're looking for anything remotely similar from Canada, try listening to some Jane Siberry or Sarah McLaughlin.
Happy listening. Cheers!

Hans

First, who knows what numbers Kate has hidden into Pi? Seconldy, I can imagine the recording prosess: "Damn! I skipped a line. Roll back the tape. Lets see.. Where was I?"

Robert

Kate Bush wins again. She's offering us a glimpse of a "sweet...obsessive" mind with a "complete infatuation of pi" and by dancing through the sequence, she pries it out of its geeky hole. If one plays the game carefully, one finds not only three alterations of the actual pi sequence but differences between the lyric sheets (booklet and website)and the sung sequence. Small things...

Peji

well she missed out this much:
9986280348253421170679
and the other error you mentioned wasn't there. So i think they must of just cut that bit out whilst editing, because the lyrics were a bit repetitive.
And anyway, how dare you say the lyrics are wrong - where abouts in the song does she actually say "this is the Pi to 150 decimal places"? She just starts singing some numbers.

Ian Lloyd

I can see how her error could ruin those "lyrics" beyond repair. They were so soothing and poetic before, now look what she went and did. Waaa oh waa oh waa oh waaaa oh waaaaa oh, it's unbelievable!

Chris McEvoy

But the best Craftsmen always make one deliberate mistake in anything they create so that the Gods don't punish them for their arrowgance.

Kate Bush

Chris, I am passionate about you. In 12 years time, when I make my next record, there'll almost certainly be a high concept song cycle about Web Usability, as a love offering to you.

Kate

bruce

Hey Chris - I got the Kate Bush album for my birthday and it's great.

My theory is that kate Bush has been looking all her life for a man who is so geeky that he would notice an error in the Pi song. She'll be reading your blog and fantasising about you now, you lucky bugger,

In 12 years time, when she makes her next record, there'll almost certainly be a high concept song cycle about Web Usability, as a love offering to you.

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