Hawking, Einstein and Pi Day

The following e-mail was originally posted on March 14, 2018

I note with some sadness the passing of Stephen Hawking, the scientist who rivals the great Albert Einstein with regards to his renown

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/obituaries/stephen-hawking-dead.html

While I note the passing with sadness, I also  am struck by some remarkable coincidences surrounding the timing of Professor Hawkings death.
 
For those who are mathematically inclined, today, the day of Hawking's death, is a special day.  Today, March 14, is known as Pi Day, the day that many celebrate that mysterious mathematical constant



So for some who are mathematically inclined, the fact that Hawking died on Pi Day seems to have some significance.  This significance is bolstered by the fact that Pi Day also happens to be the birthday of Albert Einstein 


As Hawking's obituary notes, he was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo, but the obituary fails to note that Hawking died on the day that some celebrate the birth of the person many of us consider to be the greatest physicist of all time.

Indeed, not only did Hawking die on Einstein's birthday, he and Einstein were the same age (76) when they died.

Strange coincidence, I suppose.  But I like to think that the timing has to do with a power that Hawking seemed to discount later in his career.  In my mind, I think that a higher power had a great influence over not just the timing of their lives but also into the glimpses into the "Mind of God" that Einstein and Hawking were allowed to see. And so, on this day, Pi Day, Einstein's Birthday, and Hawking's Remembrance Day, I tend to think that God looks down upon us ... and winks.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

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