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Comment by gjm11

14 years ago

Pi would still be fundamental in mathematics whatever the geometry of our universe. (Examples of where it would turn up: consider the differential equation f''=-f; all its solutions are periodic with period 2pi. The series 1-1/3+1/5-1/7... has sum pi/4. The series 1+1/4+1/9+1/16+... has sum pi^2/6. exp(pi sqrt(163)) is ridiculously close to being an integer. There are deep reasons for all these things, and they wouldn't go away if the universe were very far from spatially flat.)