A complex crop circle, which appeared in an English barley field last month, is a cryptic representation of the first ten digits of Pi, says Astrophysicist Mike Reed. The remaining question: Was it made by pranksters, aliens, or a guerrilla marketing team?
As the theatrical premiere of a new X-Files movie draws near, I want to believe that this mysterious occurrence is the opening act of an elaborate alternate reality game. One thing is for sure, whomever dreamed up the 150-foot geometric spectacle is familiar with fractals – objects that contain small patterns within a larger but similar pattern.
Pictures obtained by the Daily Mail show ten notches within the spiral. The distance between each of those marks corresponds to a digit of Pi.
In other words, the circle is divided up into ten invisible segments, like a pizza. To represent the 4 in 3.141592654, the third notch is four segments further along in the spiral than the preceding mark.
Image: Crop circle from a barley field near Barbury Castle in Wroughton, England. Credit: Daily Mail
