Century-old pi formulas by Ramanujan turn out to be deeply connected to modern physics. The same mathematics helps explain phenomena ranging from turbulence to black holes. Credit: Shutterstock Most people first encounter the irrational number π (pi) -- commonly approximated as 3.14 and extending infinitely without repeating -- during school lessons about circles. In recent decades, advances in computing have pushed this familiar constant far beyond the classroom, with powerful supercomputers