As it turns out, quite a lot

[TICKETS IN BIO] Six hundred years ago, Madhava of Sangamagrama, from Kerala, found a way to express Pi as an endless sum, centuries before Newton and Leibniz. One might imagine that after all these centuries, there would be very little left to discover about this familiar number.

As it turns out, quite a lot.

In 2024, while studying how strings scatter off one another, theoretical physicist Dr. Aninda Sinha and his postdoctoral researcher Arnab Priya Saha stumbled upon an entirely new infinite family of formulas for Pi.

The discovery emerged from an unlikely place. The researchers were investigating string theory, one of our most ambitious attempts at understanding the fundamental laws of the universe. They weren’t looking for Pi at all. It simply emerged from the equations describing how tiny strings collide.

Some of these new formulas even converge to Pi faster than Madhava’s celebrated series.

In this lecture, Dr. Sinha will take us through the mathematics, the history and the unexpected connections that led to this discovery. Along the way, he will make a larger argument about the importance of pursuing knowledge for its own sake.

Time and again, ideas pursued out of sheer curiosity, with no immediate practical application in sight, have gone on to shape technologies and transform our understanding of the world.

Expect a few stories, a little history and a fresh appreciation for the quiet usefulness of seemingly useless knowledge.

No mathematics degree required. Just curiosity (and, this being Pint of View, a drink in hand).

EVENT DETAILS
Date: Sunday, 15 November 2026
Time: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Venue: Atta Galatta, 1st Floor, Indiranagar, Bangalore (near Metro)

All this over complimentary Kombuchas by @umamibrew

Come spend your Sunday evening exploring one of mathematics’ oldest fascinations through one of modern physics’ most intriguing discoveries.