The World Beneath the Fine Print

By Vignesha Vishwanathan

A collection of short stories based in Numberville... 

A world hidden well below and behind and under the inside of the depths within the Cambridge maths textbook...

Created by the Numbers who have tails made of digits after their decimal point...

 This world is only visible to those with an affection for Mathematics

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shawline Publishing Group
• Release date: May 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781922444752

Book preview

The World Beneath the Fine Print

And other stories

Vignesha Vishwanathan

The World Beneath the Fine Print Copyright © 2021 by Vignesha Vishwanathan.

All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. 

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. 

Printed in Australia 

First Printing: May 2021

Shawline Publishing Group Pty Ltd

www.shawlinepublishing.com.au

Paperback ISBN- 9781922444745

Ebook ISBN-9781922444752

Mr Satheesh Mariathas, my maths teacher

Ms Roberta Bazeley, my English teacher

Ms Elena Polyakova & Mr Djani Gasparini – my maths teachers at MacRobertson Girls School

All the teachers at my primary &

secondary schools who fostered my learning

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Numberville Residents

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Preface:

The following stories are a personification of numbers. These numbers live in a town called ‘Numberville’ which is hidden in the depths of the Cambridge maths textbook. It should be noted that Numberville is hidden to everyone who does not have an affection for maths (basically, humans who don’t like maths), and reveals itself only to those who do. Stationary items (ruler, pencil etc.) also live in Numberville, as do geometric shapes.

A Boy Called Pi

In a land far away, in a little Ville called Numberville, named after its unusually small residents called numberlings, lived a little boy called Pi. This town was quite extraordinary, for it was inhabited by numbers instead of humans. But really, the only difference in physical appearance was that numbers were rather short, and they had tails. Yes, tails! Well, all except Whole Numbers. But every other number had a tail made up of digits after its decimal point and the length of the tail as well as the configuration of the digits dictated the number’s personality.

Every day, the little numberlings would go to school while the adults went to work in various textbooks. The young ones loved playing a game called ‘tiggy’- they would run around the playground known as a ‘Cartesian Plane’ and try to get hold of each other’s tails. As you can imagine, Whole Numbers never really liked the game as they were usually made to chase the other numberlings.

One day, just as a Whole Number thought he had finally grabbed Pi’s tail, it slipped from his grip, for the tail just kept growing.

‘Nah nah nah nah nah’ Pi had grinned as 15926535…. kept unfolding into more and more of his tail. The Whole Numbers started getting angry—Pi was always making fun of them and so easily escaping them every single time, so they decided to tell on him to the teacher Ms Square.

It was just a silly little squabble in the playground but soon Ms Circle, Ms Square and Mr Triangle all started getting tired of Pi just going on and on and on. After one particularly trying lesson, they decided they had to shorten Pi to 3.14. But as was the custom in Numberville, they had to first take him to Numbcourt, where Mr Ruler would decide if alterations could be made to the Irrational Number. Pi and his parents, Mr and Mrs √2 protested indignantly.

‘You can’t change his identity like that’ Mr √2 had growled. It was time for a compromise.

‘How about we keep Pi as Pi, but we also give him a nickname as a fraction which comes as close as can be to his decimal equivalent?’ Mr Ruler had suggested.

After some muttering, both parties agreed, and ever since, Pi was introduced as 22/7. But to this day, people from all over the world still love chasing Pi. Did you know that a computer has been programmed to calculate it to its six millionth digit!?

Author Note: When Pi was naughty, teachers referred to him only as 22/7. Pi very much disliked this because his tail wouldn’t need to unfold, and he didn’t get to admire it for the 50 millionth time! And since his tail gave him his remarkable ability to talk without a pause, the fraction kept him quiet for some time. And less vain, too.

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An Irrational Friendship

‘To celebrate Pi day, people across the country have taken to the sport of memorising as many digits of Pi as they can…’ a lady was saying.

Pi giggled as he watched a young man stumbling after the 167th digit. It was the 14th of March*, and Pi was enjoying a morning watching the celebrations in the human world. After a few minutes, the channel turned to the bakeries, where massive pies were being baked.

‘Pi turn the TV off now and stop being so self-obsessed!’ his mum called.

‘Oh, a day just for me, how so very wonderful,’ Pi beamed, skipping away into the kitchen.

‘What are you going to do mum, to celebrate me?’ Pi grinned.

‘Nothing,’ she retorted.

Just then, the phone rang.

‘Hi Mrs √2, we’re planning a playdate…can Pi come?’

‘What time, dear?’

‘Er…around 11:32?’

‘Yes, that should be fine, 1.437.’

‘Thanks Mrs √2.’

‘Pi, your friend 1.437 wants you to come to a playdate. It’s at 11:32.’

‘Ooh, that’ll be fun. I have to show them my new tail trick.’

‘Don’t show off Pi, and not a word about the silly day, understand?’

‘Yes, yes.’

A few minutes later, Pi arrived at 1.437’s house. There were three other boys, 3.7809, 5.882 and e*.

‘It’s Pi day in the Homosapien world, isn’t it?’ 5.882 asked, throwing a friendly punch at Pi.

‘You bet.’

‘You should see them recollecting my digits…it’s quite amusing.’

‘What a waste of breath.’ e said in disgust.

‘You’re just jealous e. Because you don’t have a day just for you.’ Pi retorted.

It was true.

e was jealous, though he didn’t like to admit that. Pi got a lot of attention from everyone. Though e was just as irrational, he had never made it far