The outer door handle of our front door is made in the shape of the Greek letter π (“pi”). I regularly get questions about why that is, and whether I have anything to do with mathematics. Now that “pi” has been incorporated into the name of my business, a little more explanation might be useful.

The initials of my first name and that of my wife together form “pi”. When we decided to get married a few years ago, we also organised our wedding party in that respect (combined with a “fluo” theme). Those who were there at the time will confirm that that party had a super ambiance and will remain in the memory for a long time to come.

However, “pi” is more than a combination of our initials. In today's mathematics and physics (which I do indeed have a thing for) π is ubiquitous, and has several important meanings and properties, which can also be symbolically translated to a marriage or relationship, as well as to a professional activity:

1. π is the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle, and squared is the ratio between the diameter and surface area of a sphere. Now both the circle and the sphere are considered the “ideal” shapes in 2D and 3D geometry in a number of ways: they are shapes in which the ratio of circumference to surface area (2D) or of surface area to volume (3D) has the smallest possible value. In other words, there is no other 3D body with the volume in cubic meters of a sphere whose surface area is smaller than that of a sphere. This has consequences for, for example, energy content and other important phenomena in physics. It is also the reason why in isolated conditions (vacuum, no gravity, ...) every volume of gas or liquid ultimately will always assume a spherical shape (just look at planets and stars). So π is a symbol for perfection.
2. Although π can be defined very precisely in mathematical formulas, the correct numerical value is impossible to determine. All number values that can be found over π are approximations.
3. The numerical value of is a number that (as is well known) begins with 3.14 (hence that in the United States, for example, because of their date format, March 14 is “celebrated” as “pi-day”). After those first digits, however, follows an infinite number of other digits, in which no repeating pattern can be found in any way (for example, the number value of 1/11th is 0.0909090909… where “09” is an ever repeating pattern). This property of π has even been mathematically proven. π thus continues indefinitely without ever repeating…

So you can imagine how π can be translated into a relentless pursuit of harmony, perfection and variety?