Patterns in pi in “Contact”
Submission Notes
Patterns in pi in “Contact”
In Carl Sagan’s novel Contact, the main character (Ellie Arroway) is told by an alien that certain megastructures in the universe were created by an unknown advanced intelligence that left messages embedded inside transcendental numbers. To check this, Arroway writes a program that computes the digits of π in several bases, and eventually finds that the base 11 representation of π contains a sequence of ones and zeros that, when properly aligned on a page, produce a circular pattern. She takes this as an indication of intentional design.
- Ellie Arroway
- pi
- transcendental numbers
New note:
- In the novel Contact, Ellie Arroway discovers patterns in π’s base 11 representation that form a circular shape when aligned properly.
- The pattern is interpreted as a potential message from an advanced intelligence.
Backlink: 2026 04 13 Patterns in pi in Contact
type: concept tags: [pi, transcendental-numbers, fiction] updated: 2026-04-13