Mutant π: Changing One Digit at Decimal Place 421 Keeps π Irrational and Transcendental
VoidStateKate · x · 2026-10-19
Math popularizer Cliff Pickover posed a fun question: if you flip the 0 at decimal place 421 of π to a 1, is the resulting "Mutant π" still irrational and transcendental?
The quoted discussion answers yes on both counts: a single-digit change (Δ = 10⁻⁴²¹) preserves irrationality and transcendentality. Engineers and physicists could also use the mutant as if it were π with zero practical consequence — the error is far below any measurement precision ("engineers affected: none, ever").
The attached image renders the digits of π as a matrix, highlighting the mutated digit in orange.
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