Why Is There a Connection Between Pi, the Gravitational Field, and the Meter?

Photo: Rhett Allain. A mass on a string.

Here’s a fun one to try. Take out your calculator. Now use it to take the square root of 9.8 (remember that g = 9.8 Newtons per kilogram). What do you get? SPOILER ALERT — it’s 3.13 something. Yes, that’s pretty close to the value of pi. Is it a coincidence? NOPE.