(Yann Martel's strange adventure story set aboard a boat adrift in the Indian Ocean)

I know, I know...the book isn't about mathematical equations or the geometry of a circle...but it's the best I can do! For some bizarre reason (even more so when you consider that numbers and me are sworn enemies) I have always been able to memorise π to seven decimal places...no idea why, I hated maths, and maths hated me but with added contempt. Words have always been my thing, but while I hated and feared maths as a kid, as an adult I am fascinated by it. A very good friend of mine has a pointy head more pointy than is proper, and to hear him get excited by irrational numbers, espouse mathematical logic and try to explain Gödel's second incompleteness theorem to someone as mathematically-devoid as me is truly awe-inspiring (it is interesting to note that the conversations we have are more akin to philosophy than maths)

But I digress. I need hardly tell you that this is a high-key image of the humble desk calculator - the Exposure and Clarity sliders were cranked way up in Camera Raw, the image was opened into CS3 and a Duplicate later made. This layer's blending mode was change to Screen (to really bring out the highlights!) and the image flattened; I cropped to a lovely square and resized for the web.

Now, if only maths had been that easy...

Friday 8th's castaway-with-big-numbers entry to the Challenge; click here for other monochromed Pbasers in January