It's pi day

[DesertFox]

It's Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical ratio that man has been trying to unlock for millennia. But why are we driven to find the answers behind it?

As we're all taught at school, pi represents the number you get when you divide the distance around a circle (its circumference) by the distance across (the diameter).

With just a string and a ruler you can quickly measure that pi must be just over three-and-an-eighth (3.125). With more precise measurements, you may be able to narrow it down to 3.14.

However, if you ask a typical math nerd, you'll get an earful of pi - 3.14159265 and so on. A surprising number of students have memorised 50 or even 100 digits after the decimal point.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44491000/jpg/_44491967_pyrm_getty_203.jpg

Neat pic of the pyramids, eh?

The rough ratio of pi 3.14 gives us the date for Pi Day. March 14, or 3/14 in American dating style, makes sense for a celebration of this famous constant.

Coincidentally, Pi Day is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, who no doubt knew more than a little about pi.

More (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7296224.stm)

[DeclinetoState]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Albert_Einstein_Head.jpg/220px-Albert_Einstein_Head.jpg

Happy B-day, Al! May all your E's have equaled mc².

[Elgalad]

I like 3.14159265


Want pi now


-Elgalad

[DoctorDoom]

PI to 100 digits:

3.
14159 26535 89793 23846 02643
38327 95028 84197 16939 93751
05820 97494 45923 07816 40628
62089 98628 03482 53421 17068

Anything beyond 20 digits is purely academic, since there is no real-world use for it. Consider a circle exactly 1 light year in diameter. Using 3.14159265358979323846, the circumference is:

3.14159265358979323846 light years

Changing the last digit by +1, the circumference is:

3.14159265358979323847 light years

One light year in miles is 5,878,625,373,183.61 statute miles (source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_year).

Multiplying that by the first and the second values of PI:

18468246285600.1858925604173820936406

18468246285600.1858926192036358254767

Difference: 0.0000000587862537318361 mile = 0.003724697036449135296 inch

Ergo, a +1 or -1 change in the 20th decimal digit of PI results in a change of about 3.72 thousandths of an inch, slightly less than the thickness of a dollar bill, in the circumference of a 1 LY diameter circle.

PI to 10 digits is as accurate as any practical application would need.

[bigred1says]

Pie arn't square, cornbread are sqaure. Pie are round.

[ColonialMarine0431]

Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert! Nerd Alert!

I like PI

http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm

Shamelessly stolen....

[ThomasMore]

Mega Nerd Alert: Pencil Pocket Protector Edition

When are phi day, e day, and i day?

The Golden Ratio, Napier's Constant, and the Imaginary Unit should have days, too.

If one constant gets special treatment, shouldn't they all?

http://www.boswellsdiscountparty.com/Images/gag%20album/images/Nerd%20Kit_jpg.jpg

[DesertFox]

Doc, I'm disappointed that you used Wikipedia as a source for the value of a light year. We've come to expect you to do all these calculations in your noggin, and in less than three-tenths of a nanosecond.

[Longhorn_Platinum]

DoctorDoom:
3.14159265...

:moo: I once told a class that pi was approximately 3.14159265..., & a girl told me that I was wrong. Her calculator said it was 3.1415927.

[Riverboat]

Mmm. Pi. Me want pi NOW!

http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm

[Neil Peart]

http://pi.ytmnd.com

[Elgalad]

Pi day has been over for hours and hours now. It is now the Ides of March. All of you who posted after Doc have FAILED.

This is for all of you. :shame:
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qwirWWnzJKM&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qwirWWnzJKM&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

And let That be a lesson to you.


Happy IoM, by the way.


-E

[DoctorDoom]

Doc, I'm disappointed that you used Wikipedia as a source for the value of a light year. We've come to expect you to do all these calculations in your noggin, and in less than three-tenths of a nanosecond.Actually, I have the length of a light year to even higher precision, but it comes from my own calculations. Wiki's is close enough for government work, and is an external source.

With the speed of light being 186,282.397 mps, and a sidereal year being 365.256363 days or 31,558,149.7632 seconds, a light year is 5,878,727,782,773.8783904 miles. The decimal value is 55,654.815744 inches, with the last digit being millionths of an inch.

Overkill?

In my files is PI to one million digits. Here are the first 2000 decimal digits.

3.

1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128
4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196
4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091
4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273
7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436
7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094
3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548
0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912
9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798
6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132
0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872
1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235
4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960
5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859
5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881
7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303
5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778
1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989

3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952
0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151
5574857242 4541506959 5082953311 6861727855 8890750983
8175463746 4939319255 0604009277 0167113900 9848824012
8583616035 6370766010 4710181942 9555961989 4676783744
9448255379 7747268471 0404753464 6208046684 2590694912
9331367702 8989152104 7521620569 6602405803 8150193511
2533824300 3558764024 7496473263 9141992726 0426992279
6782354781 6360093417 2164121992 4586315030 2861829745
5570674983 8505494588 5869269956 9092721079 7509302955
3211653449 8720275596 0236480665 4991198818 3479775356
6369807426 5425278625 5181841757 4672890977 7727938000
8164706001 6145249192 1732172147 7235014144 1973568548
1613611573 5255213347 5741849468 4385233239 0739414333
4547762416 8625189835 6948556209 9219222184 2725502542
5688767179 0494601653 4668049886 2723279178 6085784383
8279679766 8145410095 3883786360 9506800642 2512520511
7392984896 0841284886 2694560424 1965285022 2106611863
0674427862 2039194945 0471237137 8696095636 4371917287
4677646575 7396241389 0865832645 9958133904 7802759009

[Taylor1]

I saw this on another forum and I thought it was just someone spamming.

[Riverboat]

http://pi.ytmnd.comThat pi song - is that the Cranberries? Sounds like 'em.

[Neil Peart]

That pi song - is that the Cranberries? Sounds like 'em.No, it's by Hard 'n Phirm.

[Taylor1]

No, it's by Hard 'n Phirm.

:roar::roar::roar::rotflmbo::rotflmbo: LOL. When I saw this, I really thought someone was spamming lmfao.

[Riverboat]

Well, they need a new song on another thread that's pretty active at the moment.

[DeclinetoState]

:moo: I once told a class that pi was approximately 3.14159265..., & a girl told me that I was wrong. Her calculator said it was 3.1415927.Imagine a circle with a diameter of 100 km. Using LP's figures, its circumference would be 314.159265 km. Using his student's calculator's figures, which have rounded off the 65 to 7, we get a circle with a circumference of 314.15927 km. Now how much of a difference is that?

Well, both Moo and the calculator agree on the 314 km part, so the difference is less than a kilometer. So let's look at the figures after 314 km. To go from kilometers to meters, we must multiply by 1000. LP says the circumference of the circle is 314 km, 159.265 m. The student with her calculator would say it's 314 km, 159.27 m. So Moo and the crumb cruncher would agree on the 159 m part. So far, so good. The disagreement is over less than a meter.

Since a meter consists of 100 cm or 1000 mm, let's see what happens when we get down to the smallest units. Moo would say the circumference is 314 km, 159 m, 265 mm. His student would argue that the circumference is 314 km, 159 m, 270 mm (or 27 cm). The difference is 5 mm, or about about ¹/₅ of an inch.

This is for a circle with a diameter of 100 km (about 62.1 miles).

[gnome]

e(pi*i)+1=0

A beautiful equation containing five fundamental constants in mathematics.

[ThomasMore]

e^(pi*i)+1=0

A beautiful equation containing five fundamental constants in mathematics.

Wow. That is fascinating.