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Happy Pi Day!

BlueCalx- writes "Today (March 14, 3-14-00) is Pi Day. ticalc.org has a feature on calculating pi and its origins. A search engine exists to search for a string of numbers in the first ten million digits of pi. And of course, there is the first million digits of pi. Eat pie, memorize pi, and watch Pi. I've got my day planned! "

213 comments

  1. Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Today is also Albert Einstein's Birthday. yup.

  2. Re: Lightweights (1) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    paulumz writes:
    10 million digits of pi download up to 51 billion digits of pi
    Are large strings of digits of PI compressible? Sean.
  3. University of Waterloo PI day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Here at the University of Waterloo (Canada), the local math student government MathSoc gave out pie's at 1:59 PM - they got corperate sponsorship and everything.

    Is nothing sacred? :-)

    AFNI

  4. Re: My company's day! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Doesn't YYYYMMDD make more sense? Extends into YYYYMMDDHHMMSS and so on. Most-significant digit first, like in maths.

  5. Dumbass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    3.1428571?

    What the fsck is that? That's fscking 22/7 you dolt. That's not even close to Pi. Your message had potential, and then you had to go and ruin it like that?

  6. We have a Pi day! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We here in the Math Faculty at the University of Waterloo are celebrating Pi day today at 1:59pm EST. We are serving pie with ice cream. It's all sponsored by Nortel. It's advertised at the MathSoc website.

  7. 14-3-00 is nothing like PI. Sorry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... I'm from Europe. We never use 3-14 for March 14. We never use foot (ft), once (oz), mile (mi), and pound (lb) either. So we don't care. I know you Americans love your system. Would someone tell me the speed of light in mi/s? Or g? My point is - don't mix scientific 3.1415926.. with purely American way of dating. Or, better, invent American PI of 3.1400 and celebrate it whenever you want!

  8. Re:who the hell cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I bet the americans came up with this too. Every bloody day its seems to be a day. Give it up guys, it's daft. Aint xmas enough for you? (if your not jewish).

  9. Re:Wrong ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Actually we're 408 years late, pi day was on 3-14-1592...

    Don't worry, there's another valid pi day right around the corner. In a mere 13926 years, the date will be 3/14/15926 (or 3/14/15927 if you choose to round upwards from 3.141592653).

  10. Re:who the hell cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Years ago I had a bet with a friend to see who'd memorize more digits of pi in two weeks. I won with 114 digits, but my friend had bet double with another guy that I would memorize over 100 digits so he too won... That certainly spoiled the joy of winning.

    Nowadays I can remember only 3.1415926535897932384626433 off the top of my head, so I guess it's time to have a refresher course in honor of the pi day. han

  11. What do I get out of it if my last name is PI? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well? :)

  12. Please die, thank you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please never again post birthdays regarding mathematical constants, or you will perrish like the ones before you.

  13. Indiana big on open source? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ian Murdoch started the Debian Project while at Purdue. Of course, he didn't make the legislature pass any laws before it could go forward.

  14. Re:in fact... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know, you could just NOT READ THE ARTICLES YOU HATE.

  15. P = NP in Indiana? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    From the story link...

    "The bill telling how to square a circle, introduced in the House by Mr.Record, is not intended to be a hoax. Mr. Record knows nothing of the bill with the exception that he introduced it by request of Dr.Edwin Goodwin of Posey County, who is the author of the deomstration. The latter and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Geeting believe that it is the long-sought solution of the problem, and they are seeking to have it adopted by the legislature. Dr. Goodwin, the author, is a mathematician of note. He has it copyrighted and his proposition is that if the legislature will indorse the solution, he will allow the state to use the demonstration in its textbooks free of charge.

    Brilliant, just legislate solutions!

  16. Hey Paw, it doesn't all fit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would have been kind of funny watching all those farmers overflowing their grain silos!

  17. Does super-pi really matter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After all, once you get down to plank length, does round even have meaning anymore? Or going the other way, how much accuracy is needed to measure things on the scale of the entire universe? Our number system is discrete, circles aren't.

    1. Re:Does super-pi really matter? by migmog · · Score: 1

      Hmmm. Most of the planks I've seen are oblong and therefore nothing to do with pi. They're also reasonably big, otherwise they'd be sticks, not planks.

      Perhaps you meant Planck? or perhaps I'm wrong.

      sorry. couldn't resist.

    2. Re:Does super-pi really matter? by wass · · Score: 1
      Or going the other way, how much accuracy is needed to measure things on the scale of the entire universe?

      To avoid redundant redundancy, here is a to this same /. discussion but different thread (the 10,000,000 digits of pi thread), of an example of cosmological size, orders of magnitude, and how much precision of pi one may really need.

      --

      make world, not war

  18. Re:15 Years early... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    indeed 1592 that was the year jack ross

  19. Slashdotted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This was in the search engine site when I looked it up: Sorry. At 9:55AM on Tuesday I received a message from my Server Administrator about how my search pi script was REALLY taking up alot of CPU. Sorry for the inconvenience. I will try to have a better version up soon. Please come back!

  20. Can't sleep, clown will eat me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am irrationally afraid that the clown will put me in a pie today and eat me.

  21. Re:PI the movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    anybody got a drill I can borrow?

  22. A usefull distributed project by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/projects/pihex/pihex.html go there for a usefull distributed project to calculate pi b00ya

  23. Re:Yay!!!!!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Martha Stewart once suggested that grits should be poured at 34 degrees F.

  24. Value of pi is three according to Bible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if Kansas has any plans these days concerning Pi? :-)

    They celebrated it two weeks ago. Any reasonable, Bible-believing Christian can tell you that the value of pi is exactly three; no more and no less. This is stated in the book of Kings, and therefore is not open to debate, since the Bible is completely and wholly inerrant.

    1. Re:Value of pi is three according to Bible by MindStalker · · Score: 2

      Geez I hate it when people open cans or worms. But anyhow without going into deep explanation, the hebrew language of old was very math based. All words had numeric values, and frequently sentences has either numeric of even equation meanings. Anyhow while I don't remember the exact figures and don't have time to look it up (but I bet you could) if one uses an exact interpretation, including the mathematical subtext the bible gives pi to be something along the lines of 3.1417. Still wrong, but as close as is resonable for building whatever they were making,

  25. PI Second by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    3/14/15 9:26:53

    what luck, eh?

  26. i^i is a real number(s) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i^i=exp(i log i)=exp(i*i*(pi/2+2*pi*n))= exp(-pi/2-2*pi*n), Principal value is exp(-pi/2) complex exponents are always tricky!

  27. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first poster's comment was right:
    pi/4=1-1/3+1/5-1/7+...
    Yours is as well:
    1/(1-x)=1+x+x^2+... (|x| 1/(1+x)=1-x+x^2-...
    ln|1+x|=x-(x^2)/2+(x^3)/3-...
    ln 2 = 1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 + ...
    This does not show convergence for x=1, but using a limit argument and the fact that a sum of these decreasing (to 0) alternating terms converges, it works.

  28. Re:The real PI day in the U.S. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll be at Disney Land on the whirling teacups at that time.

  29. Re:who the hell cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of, course, it's US BS. They're using anglo-saxon date notation, and are not aware this is not a worldwide standart.

  30. Re: My company's day! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think Year/Month/Day makes the most sense, because then the resulting strings can be sorted alphanumerically and they become chronological (IYSWIM)...

  31. Re:What's the _real_ record? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Check out the Guinness book of records. The record is certainly in the tens of thousands, maybe even more. There are hundreds of people who know several thousands of digits of pi, just search for them on the net... the "useless pages" would be a good keyword for google.

  32. Pi is a cow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    check this out... http://www.strapazin.ch/magazin/heft51/magazin.htm (sorry it's in german)

  33. Pi is a cow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    check this out...

    http://www.strapazin.ch/magazin/heft51/magazin.h tm

    (sorry it's in german)

  34. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Conceive a sphere constructed with the earth at it center, and imagine it surface to pass through Sirius, which is 8.8 light years distant from the earth... Then imagine this enormous sphere to be so packed with microbes that in every cubic millimeter millions and millions of these diminutive animalcula are present. Now conceive these microbes to be unpacked and so distributed singly along a straight line that every two microbes are as far distant from each other as Sirius is from us... Conceive the long line thus fixed by all the microbes at the diameter of a circle, and imagine its circumference to be calculated by multiplying it diameter by Pi to 100 decimal places. Then, in the case of a circle of this enormous magnatude even, the circumference so calculated would not vary from the real circumference by a millionth part of a millimeter. This example will suffice to show that the calculation of Pi to 100 or 500 decimal places is wholly useless. - Hermann Schubart, A mathematics professor from Hamburg, Germany in 1889

  35. Re:Yay!!!!!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didn't say HOT grits because 1 bowl of HOT grits down one's pants is okay, but 3.14159265359 bowls of HOT grits would scald in areas where I'd rather not be scalded.

  36. Re:15 Years early... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Damn it, you beat me to it...

  37. Re:Damn! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the anniversary of Pi. And to mark this momentous celebration, we're having cake.

  38. I dunno about you..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but as a non vulcan observer I laughed out loud at his post.

  39. Re:Music based on Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get your hands on a song called:
    "Three Point One Four" from Bloodhound Gang.
    Think of Natalie Portman while listening to that tune.

  40. Re:15 Years early... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope, we're 408 years too late. It should have been on 3-14-1592.

  41. Re:Seconds in a year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ask any graduate student in physics how many seconds in a year and most will answer pi*10^7.

  42. The only language to use on Pi day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't forget to hack lots of Py(thon) today too!

  43. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is a page that offer 50 Million Pi digits http://www.angio.net/pi/piquery

  44. Re:"e" Day == Feb. 71?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On a ZX Spectrum you had to hold "Symbol Shift" in while pressing the letter "P".
    Wow, I think I still remember just about every stupid "chord" on that weird rubber-key keyboard.
    :-)

  45. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I skimmed through the file and noticed that there is an error in decimal 34,354,763. There is a 7 in the file, if I rememember correctly it should be 8.

    Don't use their file for precision calculations!!!
    Just call me instead and I'll recite the correct number for you over the phone. I'll put the number in a later post, I don't remember my phone number right now. I think it starts with 555-something...

  46. Re:ticalc.org features on slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, I was surprised about that as well. I've memorize 100 digits, just for fun one day. It's not hard to do. Friends thought I was a little nuts for doing so. Anyway, here's the digits, and they are from memory. Actually I had them all typed in and this message came from /. "Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted." I think there's our answer why there's not that many people reciting pi. Guess the filters aren't aware that it's pi day!

  47. hunh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone who cares about this stupid shit needs to die a painful slow death. Fucking gay dorks. How about I rape your mom till her anus is pi wide.

  48. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually: 1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 + 1/5 - ... seems to converge to log 2 (with base e ofcourse, so ln 2), although I couldn't find a proof for this.

    "asdfjkl;"-man

  49. oh my... by jagne · · Score: 0

    ...I think I'm gonna pee.

    jaguar / paperclip

  50. Re:Yay!!!!!!!!! by niekze · · Score: 0

    You didn't say HOT grits. The heat creates the humor. i mean if you want to have a hot grits campaign, you have to stick with HOT grits.

    --


    Chaos, Mayhem, and Destruction: Not
  51. who the hell cares by dillinger44 · · Score: 0

    you people have way too much spare time

    1. Re:who the hell cares by Jonathan+the+Nerd · · Score: 1
      you people have way too much spare time

      You think we're bad for noticing that today is 3-14? There are some people who memorize pi for fun. I only know the first 20 decimal places of pi, but I have a friend who memorized 50 places on a bet. And some people have memorized a lot more than that. It's those people who have too much spare time, not those of us who just observe Pi Day.

      --
      Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are not necessarily my own, as I've not yet had my medication today.
    2. Re:who the hell cares by dillinger44 · · Score: 1

      wow, yer relly smrt

  52. Re:I already submitted this! by dillinger44 · · Score: 0

    are you really surprised? 99.9% of the useless crap on this site is from cmdr taco, hemos, or that moron jon katz...i have posted stuff b4, exactly like you, and had it rejected, only to find that hemos or cmdr taco post the same damn story that same day...you have to realize that they are running this site as their own personal fiefdom...all of the bull about "open-source" is just that...

  53. in fact... by dillinger44 · · Score: 0

    consider me to be no longer a slashdotter...if i read one more witless post by that idiot hemos or the incestuously concieved jon katz, i think i'm gonna puke

    1. Re:in fact... by dillinger44 · · Score: 1

      you missed the point, numbnuts...it's not the topic, it's the fact that only hemos and cmdr taco get to post...which would be fine if i wanted to read, say, MSNBC or CNN...slashdot promotes the idea that it is an open forum, when in fact it is not...i have now had two stories rejected, only to find them posted later by those two posers...

  54. better idea! by hemos. · · Score: 0

    let's throw a pie at jon katz!

    -hemos.

    --
    I'm hemos., aka Jeff. Bates.. I help run this site, along with Rob. Malda.. I handle books, and generally posting storie
  55. Kansas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Celebrated pi-day a couple weeks ago!

  56. Humor icon???? by Micah · · Score: 1

    Now that's offensive! Pi day is the third most important and sacred holiday of the year (besides, of course, Christmas and Easter).

    1. Re:Humor icon???? by GodOfHellfire · · Score: 1

      you HEATHEN you!

      everybody KNOWS the 2 other most important holidays of the year are Halloween and Mardi Gras!!!!!!!!!!!

  57. Recipe for pi by Klaruz · · Score: 1

    Check out This page if you'd like to make pi yourself on your home machine. The longest string the person writing the page knows of for a home computer is 256 million digits with a 400mhz pII. That took 3 days using version 2.2 of Carey Bloodworth's program.

    How far can you get?

  58. Pointless .siggery by Phil+Gregory · · Score: 1

    I don't normally go in for pointless posts, but I figured I'd make an exception on this story just to show off my .sig.


    --Phil (And yes, I know that you don't care.)

    --
    355/113 -- Not the famous irrational number PI, but an incredible simulation!
  59. PI the movie by Craig+Maloney · · Score: 1

    I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Go to your favorite DVD seller and get Pi right now. It's a very good movie with a very good story line. You won't regret it. And what better day than today to watch it. In fact, I think I'm going to watch it tonight when I get home. :)

  60. Re:Yea...but by rama · · Score: 1

    Better form of the equation is:
    e^(pi * i) = 1 which unites all the constants we need to know about.
    --rama

  61. Re:Yea...but by McBeth · · Score: 1

    Um, just curious why you didn't use the much more well known euler equation (is there anything in math euler didn't do?)

    e^(Pi*i) = -1

    Actually, in mathematics alot of equations are named after the _second_ person to use the equation to avoid naming everything after Euler.

  62. Re: Date/Time (of topic (but more interesting...)) by mmontour · · Score: 1

    I also use the YYYY-MM-DD format whenever I can (though I didn't know it was an ISO standard until a few months ago). It makes programming a lot easier when you can sort dates chronologically just by comparing their numeric value. Also it turns out that you can fit a code of the format YYYYMMDDnn (where 'nn' is an arbitrary 2-digit number) into a 32-bit integer. One place this is used is in the serial number for DNS records, as in:

    slashdot.org
    origin = slashdot.org
    mail addr = malda.slashdot.org
    serial = 2000022300

  63. Is this a joke? by Urmane · · Score: 1

    Are you kidding? This is as stupid as the "This is the last odd day for twelve hundred years!" story. Slashdot is supposed to be "News for Nerds", not "Numerology Tricks for Those Who Have Nothing Better To Do". Well, guess what? This is the last day the date will be 3-14-00 for a thousand years!! So is tomorrow! And yesterday! Three in a row!!! And wait 'till we hit 6-6-6.

    --

    --
    "I find your lack of faith disturbing." -- Darth Vader
  64. Yay! Pi day! by Squeeze+Truck · · Score: 1

    This is my second pi day.

    Last year we went and figured out the error in the 100 digits of Pi that is carved in stone in Portland's Westbound light rail tunnel.

    And don't forget Pi approximation day. 7/22.

    --

    "Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao

  65. Re:PI == 3.20 by Squeeze+Truck · · Score: 1

    You sure? I could swear they tried to make it an even 3.

    Evidently in 2 Kings they describe an urn in Solomon's temple or something as being one cubit across and three around. That would make the ratio between the two 3.

    --

    "Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao

  66. Friends of Pi (Freunde der Zahl Pi) by troll · · Score: 1

    is a club for those of us who love this number. Anyone with an interest in pi may become an associate member; we confer full membership on those who can recite -- respectfully and from memory -- the first 100 digits (base 10) after the decimal point (the last digit is '9').
    http://www.ast.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_club.htm
    or
    http://www.ast.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_klub.htm
    (German version).

    --
    Official Pi Ambassador -- inquire for details!
    1. Re:Friends of Pi (Freunde der Zahl Pi) by troll · · Score: 1

      Oopsie! That's:
      http://www.astro.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_club.h tml
      and
      http://www.astro.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_klub.h tml

      --
      Official Pi Ambassador -- inquire for details!
  67. Re: My company's day! by Glytch · · Score: 1

    >My boss is canadian and he writes his dates
    >year-month-day which struck me as a bit odd. Does
    >anybody know if this is common?
    I'm Canadian, and it's basically a whatever-you-like kind of thing in my part of the country (New Brunswick, Acadian peninsula). American culture is pretty dominant (this *is* North America, after all), but there's enough monarchists, and native french speakers, and first-generation immigrants that it's all pretty messed up. Fortunately, the bank tellers and cashiers here are quick enough to realize what a person means when they write 001504, 4/15/2000 or 15,04,00. I've seen all three, and many more, around here.

    Ever since discovering the Internet and finding that most technical people I've met use DDMMYYYY, I've always written it like that just to avoid confusion. Besides, it just makes sense. Smallest unit to largest unit.

  68. Re:Bad Link by Byteme · · Score: 1
    The e is missing:

    http://www.pithmovie.com/

    vs

    http://www.pithemovie.com/

  69. Nope....PI day is a myth... by el+bastardo · · Score: 1

    ...if you use proper ISO-8601 dates (YYYY-MM-DD). In fact, PI day will never occur at all. The closest you can get is PI year (3142 - rounding!).

  70. I already submitted this! by marks · · Score: 1

    I posted this story, including a link to the Exploratorium Pi Day Page, very early this morning, (read: 12:05am EST), and it was rejected. What are the criteria for posting these day? BTW: If you are in SF Bay area, definatly go to the Exploratorium, i was in CA last year and went, it was really fun.

    -mark

    --

    -mark
    If your computer says LINUX, run...computers can't talk! [unless you have text-speech software]
    1. Re:I already submitted this! by marks · · Score: 1

      they _ARE_

      go to the site. (actually, its not that obvious, there is no year, but it does say 13th annual, and last year was the 12th)

      -mark

      --

      -mark
      If your computer says LINUX, run...computers can't talk! [unless you have text-speech software]
    2. Re:I already submitted this! by SEWilco · · Score: 1
      Remember, the mammals have to be trained. Training occurs by repetition. :-)

      Actually, try to discuss Slashdot here.

    3. Re:I already submitted this! by Old+Wolf · · Score: 1

      The fact that this got marked "0, Troll" by the moderators can only be evidence that what it says is true. They mark it down to 0 so that readers with Threshhold 1 don't see it and still think that the fiefdom does not exist.

    4. Re:I already submitted this! by chipuni · · Score: 2

      It's a shame that the Exploratorium isn't throwing another pi day this year. It was wonderful last year!

      --
      Never play leapfrog with a unicorn. Or a juggernaut.
  71. Re:15 Years early... by N1KO · · Score: 1

    d'oh. Sorry, I'm an idiot.

  72. Re:15 Years early... by N1KO · · Score: 1

    How about 31/4/15?

  73. mmm...canada by Pope · · Score: 1

    My boss is canadian and he writes his dates year-month-day which struck me as a bit odd
    I noticed on my Canadian Tax return form that we write in the date YYYY-MM-DD.

    I've noticed that UK writers tend to hand-write dates as eg. 3rd March 1999, whereas USAer's and younger Canadians would tend to use March 3rd 1999.
    I believe I was taught in elemantary school to use the former, but all my digital watches display the date MM-DD, so that's how I started writing it. Then I moved to the USA for high school and fit right in.

    Now I'm back in Canada, and for my own uses and for the clock on my Mac, I use USA format: MM/DD/YYYY, but always use a leading zero for the Day, but not the Month, just in case.

    In any case, I notice most people say March 15, hence the use of MM/DD.

    Pope

    --
    It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
  74. Re:Yea...but by eann · · Score: 1

    Not quite. I think you meant

    e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0

    (to get both the additive and multiplicative identities in there).

  75. More Pi nuttiness by kallisti · · Score: 1

    This link is to Mike Keith's home page. Among other things, it has Poe's The Raven rewritten so the word lengths match the digits of pi, while keeping the style, rhythm and meaning of the original. It is later expanded into the Cadaeic Cadenza which is a masterpiece.

  76. Re: My company's day! by Paul+Wright · · Score: 1
    Anyone think we should be campaigning for a day off then? :-)

    Definitely. :-)

    Mnemonic for pi (from "Bluff your way in mathematics"):

    How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.

    (Count the letters in each word).

    The book claims that various obscene versions can be found on the walls of the lavatories in various maths or science departments. (Except at the Cavendish and DAMPT, where they have blackboards in the loos anyway, of course).

  77. Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) by Emilio · · Score: 1

    For most real applications, the notation log(x) is used to represent log base e. (Note: High School is not a real application.)

  78. Re:Wrong ! by Gid1 · · Score: 1

    Wrong again.. The middle number's the month in the UK. We don't have a fourteenth month. =)

  79. Re:A new calendar? by Gid1 · · Score: 1

    I had a development contract a while ago which involved the handling of data imports via Excel.

    The suppliers for the data used lots of different date formats and often entered dd/mm/yy data into an mm/dd/yy format sheet, thereby invalidating dates.

    I wrote a nifty algorithm which trends the dates on the sheet and makes a guess at the intended format. When you have a load of dates, you can quite easily work out what the date should be 99% of the time, even if the dates were entered incorrectly.

    Excel partly uses the separators (eg, whether a date is entered as 01/02/03 or 01-02-03) to determine the intended format.

    Starting in 2001, just under half of all dates expressed with two-digit years are going to be thoroughly ambiguous. This will last until 2012!

  80. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by SEWilco · · Score: 1

    The other 4,000,000,000 digits of Pi are considered proprietary as they have great commercial value for decoding the Bible Code in the German King James edition...

  81. Re:Wrong ! by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 1

    No no no, the last pi date Dec 15, 1979.
    At 9:27:45 pm, eastern time, to be exact.

    The next won't happen for quite a while.

  82. The PI minute by dkh2 · · Score: 1
    That would make the PI minute: 3/14/15 9:26

    This is assuming we are using the U.S. notation of mm/dd/yy hh:mm for date/time format.

    Otherwise, using YYYY/mm/dd hh:mm you have to wait until the year May 9, 3141 for: 3141/5/9 to come around.

    --
    My office has been taken over by iPod people.
  83. Corrected link to 400M digits by plaa · · Score: 1
    --

    I doubt, therefore I may be.
  84. Offtopic: Computing e (natural logarithm base)? by jtgold · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know an algorithm for computing individual digits of the natural logarithm base constant (e)? I know the sum of one over n-factorial converges quickly to e but I don't know how to be sure of how many acutal digits are available at each step, and I imagine that there must be a computationally faster mechanism.

  85. PI == 3.20 by fReNeTiK · · Score: 1

    Don't believe me? In Indiana, they (almost) did...

    Silly americans

    --
    I strongly believe that trying to be clever is detrimental to your health. -- Linus Torvalds
    1. Re:PI == 3.20 by jnd3 · · Score: 1
      Evidently in 2 Kings they describe an urn in Solomon's temple or something as being one cubit across and three around. That would make the ratio between the two 3.

      I saw something similar to this in the book The Joy of Pi, and there was a footnote about some other research on the topic. There's an interesting paper online called On The Rabbinical Exegesis of an Enhanced Biblical Value of Pi . Here's the abstract:

      "We present here a biblical exegesis of the value of pi, pi(Hebrew) = 3.1415094..., from the well known verse 1 Kings 7:23. This verse is then compared to 2 Chronicles 4:2; the comparison provides independent supporting evidence for the exegesis."

      They come up with an actual value of pi in the Bible as approximately 3.1415094... (which is about 0.003% deviation from pi)!

      JimD

  86. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by fReNeTiK · · Score: 1

    Tiny! On this ftp server here they claim to have 4,200,000,000!! But only 200,000,000 for public download. BTW, they're at 6,442,450,000 PI digits now...

    What I don't get is: We know it is an irrational number so this is will go on forever. Is there any practical use to knowing PI with such precision or is it just a pissing contest among mathematicians?

    --
    I strongly believe that trying to be clever is detrimental to your health. -- Linus Torvalds
  87. Lightweights by paulumz · · Score: 1

    search 10 million digits of pi
    download up to 51 billion digits of pi
    there's only 4.2 billion digits available for public download, but up to 51 billion can be downloaded by request (if you get them to email 51 billion digits to you, cc me ;>)

  88. Re:"e" Day == Feb. 71?? by nutsy · · Score: 1

    The value of e is approximately 2.71828182846. The problem is that the first two digits after the decimal point are "7" and "1". February 71??

    Use the European standard -- 27.1, i.e., 27 January.

    Remember how the Commodore 8-bit computers (PET, VIC 20, C-64, etc.) had the pi symbol right on their keyboard (shift + up arrow)

    Did? They're still there, even if the company isn't. Along with the monetary pound sign, which had an acquaintance of mine swearing up and down that clearly Commodore was a British company, and using rather charming circular logic (which I can't remember) to try to prove it. Oy.

  89. HERESY by cje · · Score: 1

    And most things do seem to be after Euler. Some Gaussian. A whole wack of Cauchy (a touch of Dirichlet), some Euclidean, a splash of Newton, a touch of Taylor, and a jiggle of Riemann and Leibnitz.

    How dare you forget Georg Cantor??? :-)

    --
    We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
  90. A new calendar? by robathome · · Score: 1

    If April actually had 31 days, that would be possible.

    Rob "30 days hath September..." Novak

    --

    At 3 A.M. you can see people's auras; at five you can see their contrails...
    1. Re:A new calendar? by Windigo+The+Feral+(N · · Score: 2

      Robathome dun said (regarding someone's date of 31/4/15):

      If April actually had 31 days, that would be possible.

      Robathome no baka :)

      Seriously...different countries have different formats of splitting up dates and all. In the US, the typical format tends to be

      mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy

      where mm=month, dd=day, and yy=year (non-Y2K-compliant version) or yyyy=year (if you don't want to confuse hell out of everyone).

      Europeans do it different, like this:

      dd/mm/yy or dd/mm/yyyy

      where dd=day, mm=month, etc. etc.

      In much of Latin America, including Brazil (don't give me that shocked look--there are a lot of folks from Brazil on the net now, and even other countries like Mexico) they do it in yet another format:

      yy/mm/dd or yyyy/mm/dd

      where yy=year, etc. etc. etc.

      In fact, it's SO bad what with the confusion (not to mention that a lot of places, like, oh, damn near the entire Middle East, don't even USE the Gregorian calendar--and other places, like Japan, use it but with their own special "mutations" (in Japan, they have their own calendar year count--plus they tend to count by emperor's reigns, instead of calendar year)...) that there is actually an official ISO standard for references to dates--which, surprise, surprise, actually fits the Latin American standard:

      yyyy-mm-dd

      where yyyy=year, mm=month, etc.

      So he was right after all. So are the other folks. :)

      Myself, I think messing with numbers like that is a bother, so I just use dates like, oh, 15 April 31 (which was the date he mentioned, by the way--by that reckoning, Yshua of Nazareth might've gotten to see it, but we're almost two millennia late :) to be crystal clear. Or measure everything in the good, old, ACCURATE calendar that the Mayans used if I want to confuse hell out of everyone. :) (Which brings up an interesting point...the Maya knew about zero, probably knew about pi to make measurements, and the Long Count is actually measured in terms of base-20 increments...anyone know what pi would be in base 20 and what Pi Day would be in the Long Count? ;)

      --
      -Windigo The Feral (NYAR!)
  91. Re:Music based on Pi by komet · · Score: 1

    Let's not forget Don McLean's seminal "American Pi" (often misspelt "Pie"). Lots of interesting info here .
    Although it's a bit out of date, since it fails to mention the Linux revolution, even though that is clearly mentioned in the song ("do you have faith in God above, if the Bible tells you so" is a clear reference to Linus...)

    --
    Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced.
  92. Pi(e) day at U(Waterloo) by RandomBlue · · Score: 1

    Here at the Math faculty of University of Waterloo, Ontario, we celebrated Pi Day with lots and lots of free pie (at 1:59pm of course!)

    I think Nortel Networks sponsored the event. You know you're in a geek-heaven university when...

    mmmm... bumbleberry pie... yum! :D

    --
    "The reason that every major university maintains a department of mathematics is that it is cheaper to do this than
  93. ticalc.org features on slashdot? by sesquiped · · Score: 1

    Contratulation to ticalc for getting one of their (often considered completely useless) features posted as a slashdot article! That's the first time I've seen one of those, and I've been following both sites for a pretty long time. ticalc.org is finally getting some recognition. For what? I'm not sure; the article was in the humor category.

    Anyway, why hasn't anyone posted with how many digits of pi they have memorized (like they have all over the ticalc page)? I must admit I can only do 31 from memory, which is a lot for most poeple, but not very much at all compared to some freaks. 231 was the most claimed so far on the ticalc.org page, 45 the most I've seen in person, and I believe the world record is over 40,000. Yes, that's 40,000.

    (There's no point in me posting the actual digits because there's no proof that I memorized them. The claim is just as valid as the digits, on a web forum.)

  94. Funny tips on memorizing pi to 100 decimal places by au3 · · Score: 1

    Funny tips on memorizing pi to 100 decimal places: http://au.4mg.com/pi.htm

  95. Re:15 Years early... by Drunken+Philosopher · · Score: 1

    Actually, you'd have to wait until 3-14-16 by that logic; 3.14159... rounds to 3/14/16.

    Of course, the perfect Pi day would have been 3/14/1593, unless you want to wait a lonnng time and celebrate on 3/14/15926..! (ad nauseaum)

    Wheeee....

    --

    "There is a diminishing return on caution."
  96. Re:we have pi day every year by m3000 · · Score: 1

    We celebrated PI day in school today also. Our's wasn't as extravagent though. We just wrote songs about PI and brought pies to eat in class. It was a lot of fun though.

  97. Re:What's the _real_ record? by jeremy+f · · Score: 1

    I don't think I'll ever break a record, I once had 13 digits of Pi memorized, but now it's gone down to 10 :(

    Consider yourself lucky for having a weird memory :)


    _____________________
    .sig Instructions
    step one: place .sig here

  98. Somebody has to say it... by kaphka · · Score: 1

    What about 3-14-15926?

    Better start making plans...

    --

    MSK

  99. Damn! by Monkey42 · · Score: 1

    We're supposed to have pie? Damn! and I just finished my pudding.

  100. Re:Music based on Pi by jkeene · · Score: 1

    And here's some music for the younger geeks. Not mine, unattributed author on a home-schooling mailing list.
    >
    > THE PI SONG
    > (to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree")
    >
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Your digits are unending,
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Oh, number Pi
    > No pattern are you sending.
    > You're three point one four one five nine,
    > And even more if we had time,
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Oh, number Pi
    > For circle lengths unbending.
    >
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Oh, number Pi
    > You are a number very sweet,
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Your uses are so very neat.
    > There's 2 Pi r and Pi r squared,
    > A half a circle and you're there,
    > Oh, number Pi
    > Oh, number Pi
    > We know that Pi's a tasty treat.
    >

  101. Re:Yea...but by Old+Wolf · · Score: 1

    e^(Pi*i) = -1

    so, ie = the (Pi*i)th root of -i.

    Do we have an equation for netscape too?

    BTW, that i^(-i) equation doesn't seem to be correct, mainly because i^i is complex and the righthand side isn't. You can get to Euler's formula from that one, but not the other way around, so they aren't equivalent

  102. Re:Yea...but by Old+Wolf · · Score: 1

    sup?

  103. My .Sig! by Giant+Robot · · Score: 1

    I knew my .sig would be useful someday ;-)

  104. Re:Wrong ! by PurpleBob · · Score: 1

    No, that would be "Pi Approximation Day".
    --

    --
    Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
  105. Re:"e" Day == Feb. 71?? by B-Rad · · Score: 1

    I remember that key fondly. Whenever my brother and I were doing weird stuff on our Vic20, we didn't have a clue what that symbol was, so we called it 'the dog'. There was something really surreal about putting dogs in strings.

    Crazy.

  106. Re:Distributed Pi by psergiu · · Score: 1
    Moderators !!

    Do your job and give a +5 Interesting to this guy

    Distributed computation of PI ? It has Distributed, Beowolf, Computing ... only Natalie Portman is missing from the scene ... :)

    • someone must port the software to Linux, *BSD, Mac, BeOS, HAL9000, PDP8 , fridges and toasters;
    • /. TEAM !!!
    • copyleft t-shirts with digits of pi ...

    go to http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/projects/pi hex/pihex.html NOW !

    ps: check out the guy's counter... the site will be /.ed in no time

    --
    1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
  107. Pi the movie breaks Netscape/Linux by psergiu · · Score: 1

    Be warned:

    Communicator 4.7 x86 linux dies when the java part of "Pi the movie" is accessed.

    Don't know about other versions/platforms

    --
    1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
  108. Re:Indiana nearly set Pi = 3.2 in 1897 by deblau · · Score: 1
    The full story is told in Petr Beckman's A History of Pi. The bill was stopped because of a chance visit by a local mathematician to the Senate floor. The bill wasn't killed, but rather tabled, and it simply hasn't been back on the agenda since.

    Dave Blau

    --
    This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
  109. It's not Pi day in .au by Shanep · · Score: 1

    Since .au uses the logical format of least significant to most significant, day, month, year.
    I think most to least is more logical, to match our base10 numbering system, but month, day, year is just not logical.

    --
    War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
    1. Re:It's not Pi day in .au by GrassyNoel · · Score: 1

      Well, what could we have as Pi Day in non mm-dd-yy areas?

      Astronomy always uses yy-mm-dd, so 3-14 works there as in the US.

      In dd-mm land, we get 31-4 or May Day = Pi Day, or (this is my favoUrite) 3-14, i.e., Pi Day 2000 is 3-2-2001!

      Similarly, using astronomical dates, we could also have 31-4 meaning the 4th day of the 31st month in 2000, or 4-7-2002. See you then!

      --
      Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
  110. Will Pi day ever come for much of the world? by Paelon · · Score: 1

    If I'm not mistaken doesn't most of the world use dd/mm/yy as their date format as opposed to the mm/dd/yy of north america? In which case 03/14/00 (or more accurately 03/14/15) will never come. Unless of course we add a few more months, which, in my opinion, is well worth it to have a day the whole world can enjoy.

  111. Aren't we a few years early? Or late? by Sagev · · Score: 1

    It seems to me that since pi =~ 3.14159, that the real Pi day can only come along once per century. And the next one shoul be coming up March 14, 2016 (3-14-16). Or, better yet, we're a few centuries late: Seems the -real- pi day shoulda been 3-14-1592. And, of course, in 13,000 or so years, we'll possibly have 3-14-15926. Maybe if nanotech and virus-creation technology devlop fast enough, I'll live to see it. :)

  112. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by wass · · Score: 1
    Is there any practical use to knowing PI with such precision or is it just a pissing contest among mathematicians?

    An interesting question with an even more interesting answer. In a book by Petr Beckman, i think called "A History of Pi", he provides this example. The distance to the nearest star (proxima centauri) is a few lightyears (I think about 4 lightyears?) Suppose the sun and this star form a diameter of a huge sphere. Now further suppose this sphere is filled to the brim with tiny parameciums, I forget the size of these, but probably estimated as spherical at a few microns or so. Okay, you've now got a huge sphere teaming with googles of paramecia. Now let's take each paramecium and build a straight line with them, spacing each one apart by the few lightyears distance to proxima centauri. Such that you've now got an incomprehensibly large line out to intergalactic space. Now, suppose this incredibly huge line is the diameter of a circle, and the line's length is known to absolute precision. Thus, it is only the uncertainty of pi which prevents an accurate measure of the huge circle's circumference. If one knows pi to a mere 100 digits, the circumference can be calculated to a precision of a few microns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    That is totally amazing, and crazy how quickly orders of magnitude can jettison out of our understanding. Basically, 10^100 is such a huge number, it would be an extraordinaly rare occurrance to need even close to this much precision. Note, I haven't checked the validity of these measurements, so they may be way off. But it's still something mind-numbing to think about!

    --

    make world, not war

  113. Re:Seconds in a year by wass · · Score: 1

    Or, more interestingly, "pi seconds is a nanocentury". got that from a fortune. :-)

    --

    make world, not war

  114. My favorite PI equation by diggem · · Score: 1

    e^i(pi) + 1 = 0

    I think I have that right.. E, Euler's number to the power i (square root of negative 1) + 1 is exactly equal to zero.

    Cool.. interesting and weird..

    -diggem

  115. Re:Accuratly calculating Pi by Kupek · · Score: 1

    I can't tell if you these people are off in their calculation of pi, but I can tell you that you can not generate random numbers in software. Think about it. If you can write a program to generate a set of numbers, it is, by definition, not random. You can't use deterministic means to achieve randomness. Using things like the OSes time/date stamp, you can achieve pseudo-random numbers that would repeat after a few hundred thousand iterations, but that's still not random.

  116. Re: My company's day! by JonK · · Score: 1

    Surely DAMTP - wasn't it the Dept. of Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics. We're talking the one down behind the Anchor, right?
    --
    Cheers

    --
    Cheers

    Jon
  117. Pi and the establishment by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 1
    He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line ofthirty cubits to measure around it. -- 1 Kings 7:23


    Friends, I'd like to take a moment or two to discuss with you the biggest whopper in the whole liberal lie of mathematics. The liberals like to tell us that pi is what they call a "transcendental number." This is, of course, shameless liberal jargon that has no meaning whatsoever. They are teaching our children that pi goes on and on forever without repeating itself, and that it is not representable by any polynomial with integer coefficients. This, my friends, represents only the latest in a long string of liberal lies meant to undermine God and his Creation.

    The true value of pi is exactly three, as evidence by the Scripture quote above. It is universally agreed by all honest mathematicians that there is no evidence for a transcendental pi. Not one iota. Friends, you and I know that the Bible is the wholly inerrant word of God, and that the liberals are barking up the wrong tree. That doesn't stop them from spreading their socialist "transcendental number" propaganda. See, the liberals like stuff like this. They like anything that makes mankind think of itself as small and insignificant. This makes it easier for them to control the minds of our children. After all, why not listen to some liberal, if you are not capable of fully representing a single number?

    This is an out-and-out lie.

    The whole mathematical system has been invented by communists so that they can gain a foothold in decent society. Along with this comes the damnable "Metric" system, which was invented in the socialist Mecca of Europe. The liberals want us all to use this "Metric" system. They want to force us into conformity so that they can run our lives. They tried it once in the 1970s .. remember, that, friends? They put up all of those speed limit signs with metric measurements on them (kilowatt-hours? hectares? who knows!) Of course, God's good Christians responded warmly by shooting them down. Therefore, I am glad to report that the Metric system has not caught on in decent society, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.

    Really, friends, the only unit of measure that we need is the cubit. This is a Biblical, Godly unit of measure that can be used for everything that the socialist Metric system is supposed to be used for. You can say "The Johnson baby was one tenth of a cubit long" or "It is 78.8 quintillion cubits to Alpha Centauri" (though the latter is a lie, of course; the stars are simply fixed points on a celestial sphere that lies somewhere beyond our planet Earth, which is the center of the Universe.) My swimming pool holds forty cubic cubits of water.

    So let's fight the fight, friends. Let's fight transcendental numbers. Let's fight the Metric system. Let's wage a war against the liberals that intend to enslave our minds through obfuscated mathematics and anti-God systems of measurement. Write your congressman and school board and insist that they use books that teach that pi == 3 and transcendental numbers don't exist. We can do it, my friends. We can do it if we all stick together.

    I didn't write this, but I think it's damn funny.
    The Good Reverend
  118. Pi Day only in the U.S. by Esperandi · · Score: 1

    I usually want to spank anyone who makes observations like this, BUT, i might as well make such an observation myself... Most other countries take note of the date as 14-3-00, not 3-14-00. It may look different to you, but it makes a lot more sense. Day, month, year. A progression. Insated of month, day, year which makes no sense.

    I only know this kind of trivia because this is the way the mainframe at work keeps track of dates ;)

    Esperandi

  119. Perpetuating urban legend by Esperandi · · Score: 1

    I can't believe you say it came from an URBAN LEGEND site and then speak it as if it were truth, do you have any clue what an urban rumor is?

    Go look it up, but be careful not to rustle the cactus by the bookcase, its filled with spidr eggs and if they hatch we'll have to burn down the house.

    Esperandi

  120. Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) by polypropylene · · Score: 1
    What about

    e ^ (pi*i) = -1

    that one's not too obvious!

  121. Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) by MicroBerto · · Score: 1

    e^(pi*i)+1 = 0

    this is a very cool theorem because it involves 5 VERY powerful and useful constants. Your mileage may vary...

    Mike Roberto
    - roberto@soul.apk.net
    -- AOL IM: MicroBerto

    --
    Berto
  122. Pi movie stirs up commotion by MicroBerto · · Score: 1

    I read somewhere that so many things in the movie Pi (which is AMAZING, see it now!) were very alarming and true to many mathemeticians, and that it was very eye-opening, just not another made-up movie. Does anyone have any input on this, or any articles about it?
    pi's soundtrack is also very cool, two of the songs are named "(pi)r^2" and "2(pi)r".

    Although a lot of the stuff in that movie went over my head, it was VERY thought provoking. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who slashdots

    Mike Roberto
    - roberto@soul.apk.net
    -- AOL IM: MicroBerto

    --
    Berto
  123. Nice song I've written by lsw · · Score: 1


    Bye, bye Miss American Pi drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry an them good ol' boys were drinkin whiskey and rye singin this will be the day that I die, this will be the day that I die.

    --
    Ironclad Security only exists when you have Chuck Norris on the shift. Do we really have to discuss this? (Plutonite)
  124. Accuratly calculating Pi by sopwath · · Score: 1
    On the ticalc page, the program they show is based on a monte carlo method. A key problem with finding any number with the Monte Carlo method is that it is innacurate. It relies on random numbers. Can a normal home computer generate truly random numbers? I thought that the CPU got a psudo-random number by multiplying a certain memory register by an aproximation of Pi, emebeded in the CPU architecture. That means that all these people that have been "finding" Pi out to anything more than a few decimal places (8, 64, 128...?) are getting wrong answers!!!

    This Mante Carlo method needs real random numbers not psudo-random numbers. Is there another way to find Pi using some other method?

  125. Yea...but by niekze · · Score: 1

    Hey, we all love Pi, but why doesnt e^ have a day? really. It never gets any credit for being an irrational number. and its a very special number

    --


    Chaos, Mayhem, and Destruction: Not
    1. Re:Yea...but by snarkh · · Score: 1
      A transcedental number is a number such that it is not a root for any polynomial with integral coefficients. For example \sqrt{2} is irrational but not transcendental as it is a root of x^2 - 2 = 0.

      It turns out that mots of real numbers are transcendental, even though except for pi and e we do not see many around. More precisely the set of transcendental numbers is uncountable while the set of non-transcendental (algebraic) numbers is countable.

    2. Re:Yea...but by debrain · · Score: 2
      I actually didn't know about it. :)

      And most things do seem to be after Euler. Some Gaussian. A whole wack of Cauchy (a touch of Dirichlet), some Euclidean, a splash of Newton, a touch of Taylor, and a jiggle of Riemann and Leibnitz.

      Mix together, and *poof*, one set of irrefutable truths.

    3. Re:Yea...but by debrain · · Score: 2
      i^i is complex and the righthand side isn't.

      Quite the contrary. i^(-i) is real. To quote Benjamin Peirce (Harvard Professor):

      "Gentlement, this is surely true, it is absolutely paradoxical, we can't understand it, and we haven't the slightest idea what the equation means, but we may be sure that it means something very important."
    4. Re:Yea...but by debrain · · Score: 5
      Both e and Pi are not just irrational, but transendental, meaning they are not the product of algebraic systems, which was extremely difficult to prove. We shan't forget i either, the imaginary number, so aptly named (sarcasm).

      The interesting thing relating them would be:

      i^(-i) = e^(Pi/2)

      Yep. That's just bizarre. Nonetheless pretty much irrefutable in the complex number system.

      (anyone else notice how the sup tag doesn't work?)

  126. Quote Of The Day by AlexA · · Score: 1

    "Hmmm....... Pie......." --Homer Simpson

    1. Re:Quote Of The Day by spiralx · · Score: 1

      A question then. What sort of music do you listen to then? Where do you live (i.e. Europe or the US)? Have you ever been to a decent club where they play decent dance music, or are you just basing your knowledge on the charts? Because techno, hip-hop and bubblegum music are three very different styles of music, and was just curious as to what you liked an what you were basing your opinions on. Thank you.

    2. Re:Quote Of The Day by evilempire · · Score: 1

      I hate that damn pi.

      Shameless advertising. Techno, trance, bubble gum music, hip-hop, etc... All the same redundant, boring music. repitition is a bore.

      I'm the great, cynic, I'm the indifferent gaze

      --

      I'm the great, cynic, I'm the indifferent gaze
      Mendacity, betrayal, this is not a phase.
  127. Re:WRONG! 4 * (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 ...) by spiralx · · Score: 1

    Oops. It's been a while and now I fell rather stupid :(

  128. Slashdot just lost the prize for news for nerds by |deity| · · Score: 1

    Slashdot may have a lot of geeks and nerds but the site that this story is on is ****GEEKS ONLY****. (while checking for PC police the poster adds not that their is anything wrong with that.) If your having trouble figuring out what PC means in this context you belong on the other site.

    I wanted to do a little trolling when I saw that they had a message board going. Not only was the message board really nifty looking but *they* require you to login. I noticed many fewer troll posts and very few offtopic posts. No moderation that I could see from a very brief examination.

    --
    Environmentalists are their own worst enemy. ~tricklenews.com
  129. Yummy by Erik+Fish · · Score: 1

    And don't forget yesterday's Cruel Site of the Day:

    Calculating the Value of Pie

    Delicious.

  130. oh? by Skinny+Rob · · Score: 1

    I always thought 22nd July (22/7) was Pi Approximation Day.

  131. Re: My company's day! by Dman33 · · Score: 1

    Incidentally, why do you USA-ers write the date the other way round? Is it just to be awkward?

    Awkward is a very nice way of saying it, but I think it is more that we Americans are stubborn idiots.
    Sure, at some times I am proud to be an American, but other times I just feel like hiding my head in the sand.

  132. Re:Wrong ! by Majorachre · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately you all keep making the same rounding mistakes. We know that Pi=3.141592653590... (That is properly rounded) so today isn't pi day at all. 3/14/16 would be Pi day, not 3/14/15 as originally counterargued. And many of your other arguments were wrong too.

  133. PI = 355/113 by fforw · · Score: 1

    well.. not exactly.. but very close =)

    --
    while (!asleep()) sheep++
  134. No, no, by reality-bytes · · Score: 1

    Im sure its 3.552567853 (My early Pentium tells me so :)

    --
    Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
  135. What's the _real_ record? by Redgie · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know what the real record for memorizing this is? I've heard lots of wild speculation, but nothing firm. I've memorized 650 digits without any real effort (almost by accident, I have a weird memory), and might actually work at it and go for a record if it is under say 5000. I've heard it may be 42,000 though and I am just not that insane.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Artificial intelligence or natural stupidity?

    --

    Artificial intelligence or natural stupidity?
    Guess which wrote this...
    1. Re:What's the _real_ record? by rawdograwdograwdog · · Score: 2

      According to this article (c. 1995), Hiroyuki Goto, 21, captured the world record, reciting Pi to over 42,000 decimal places.
      I found it linked to from http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/PI/.

  136. Preferred Popular Pi by Redgie · · Score: 1

    I did see a page about a year or so ago where readers were invited to vote for their favorite value of pi. Along with 22/7, the arctan value and so on was the value "42", in a tribute to Douglas Adams and the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Apparently "42" won hands down (sure to produce a very odd circle).
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Artificial intelligence or natural stupidity?

    --

    Artificial intelligence or natural stupidity?
    Guess which wrote this...
    1. Re:Preferred Popular Pi by Detritus · · Score: 2

      My favorite has always been 355/113, it's a reasonably good approximation and it's easy to remember. Take the first three odd integers, duplicate the digits, cut in half and divide.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  137. Re:Wrong ! by Shotnicam · · Score: 1
    all depending on how many digits we use... and after the whole Y2K silliness, i thought we all decided to use 4 digits for the year (until we run into the Y10K situation)

    it should be rounded up, i agree. however, we are still a few hundred years late. *sigh*
    3-14-1593

    .sigs are dumb!

  138. Re: My company's day! by Grab · · Score: 1

    I work for a company called Pi Technology. Anyone think we should be campaigning for a day off then? :-)

    Although since we're mainly in the UK then the date doesn't really work for us (as numerous gritters have pointed out earlier). Incidentally, why do you USA-ers write the date the other way round? Is it just to be awkward?

    Grab.

  139. Woo-Woo! by kevryn · · Score: 1

    kevryn's got a new favorite day!!!! Talk about coolness! (I don't care if it is wrong! I like it!) Actually I write my dates DD-MM-YYYY, but since it is usually accepted as MM-DD-YY in my country (*sob*I admit it, I'm an American! (as if you couldn't tell from my spelling, but let's not get into that.)) I'll take what I can get! 'scuse me, must go edit my user info now... Need to add my new favorite holiday!

  140. Fun with number theory by Grant+Elliott · · Score: 1

    While we're celebrating pi day, we need to remember that today is also Albert Einstein's birthday. Happy birthday Al!

    My favorite formula for pi:

    lim (as n approaches infinity) sin(180/n)*cos(180/n)*n

    This is the easiest to derive. The area of a regular polygon with n sides and radius R is:

    sin(180/n)*cos(180/n)*n*R^2

    And since the area of a regular polygon with infinite sides is pi*R^2 (we can prove that it is directly proportional to R^2), we obtain that pi is equal to the above limit.

    Of course, this formula is useless if the algorithm you use for sin and cos uses pi. But there are plenty that don't.

    We can't forget digit extraction for pi:

    Sigma (as n goes from 0 to infinity) (4/(8n+1) - 2/(8n+4) - 1/(8n+4) - 1/(8n+6)) * (1/16)^n

    You can find that formula in a legible form at http://www.mathsoft.com/asolve/plouffe/plouffe.htm l

    And let's not forget our good buddy Ramanajun (sp). The man was an absolute genius. He came up with five or 6 expressions for (are you ready for this?) 1/pi. I'd type them here, but they'd be mulilated in standard text (much like the digit extraction theorem was).

    Finally:

    pi^2/6 = sigma (as x goes from 1 to infinity) 1/(x^2)

    On another fun note, I'll now list off a few other fun tricks with transidential numbers and other fun stuff:

    The nth Fibonacci number is (phi^n-psi^n)/sqrt(n)

    e^(pi*i) = -1

    i^i = e^(-pi*i/2)

    tau(tau(15!)) = 42

    My favorite is the last one : )

    On a final note, you can't appreciate pi until you read The Joy of Pi. You can enjoy some of the fun at www.joyofpi.com The book has all sorts of fun things. Among them are the first 1,000,000 digits of pi printed in the background on every page. (You can find 10,000 at the webpage.) Better still, important digits are marked. Ever wonder what the 3rd digit of pi is? What about the 31st? 314th? 3141st? 31415th?

    And, of course, the most important digit: THE 42nd DIGIT OF PI : ) I looked it up once. I think it's a 9.

    Why didn't anyone celebrate e day? What about phi day? Why not celebrate the 42nd day of the year?

    This concludes yet another edition of "Grant Babbles meaninglessly."

    --

    "I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." -Richard Feynman

  141. Have sex? by Dungeon+Dweller · · Score: 1

    You could have sex 3.14 times... On second thought, make that 3 or 4.

    Hehe, on a related note, you could eat a pie. Sorry, just had to make those puns.

    --
    Eh...
  142. Seconds in a year by luckykaa · · Score: 1

    (Learned from the fortune cookie program)

    If I were to tell you that there are approximately 31 600 000 seconds in a year, you would probably forget. You are much more likely to remember that to within half a percent, pi seconds is a nanocentury.

  143. Re:15 Years early... by luckykaa · · Score: 1

    Hey, its alright for you Americans. In Europe we have to wait until 3rd Jan 4159. Even in Japan it isn't going to happen until the year 3141 (Sometime in May).

  144. Re:15 Years early... by luckykaa · · Score: 1

    Hmmm 31st of April......Hold on.....

    30 days hath September, April, June and a tax offender..........

    Nope, it can only work on the Martian calender.

  145. braindamaged date by brilsmurf · · Score: 1

    14 March is Pi day only in the USA. The rest of the world population (i.e. 95%) writes 14-03(-2000).

  146. Re:15 Years early... by brilsmurf · · Score: 1

    How silly: there is no 14th month, and the year 15 has passed over 1984 years ago. BTW, the asteroid that was number 3142 on the list of confirmed discoveries has been named "kilopi" later http://cfa-www.harvard.e du/iau/lists/NumberedMPs03001.html

  147. Wrong ! by Salsaman · · Score: 1

    Actually we're 408 years late, pi day was on 3-14-1592...

    1. Re:Wrong ! by GClar · · Score: 1

      Well, you can use (like here in Uruguay): 31/4/16 but isn't so close to 3.141592.... Anyway, it's just the typical joke of mathematical, engeeniers, physics, anyone_with_lot_of_math_background,etc ;-) Or it's just a publicity stunt for the Pi movie? :-))))) JASP(Just Another Slashdot Post) PD: Where are those CR gone?

    2. Re:Wrong ! by Cuthalion · · Score: 2

      3.142856... is just a tiny bit closer to 3.14158 than 3.140000 is.

      --
      Trees can't go dancing
      So do them a big favor
      Pretend dancing stinks!
    3. Re:Wrong ! by Cuthalion · · Score: 2

      Or, if you're european, pi day should then be the 22nd of July? :)

      --
      Trees can't go dancing
      So do them a big favor
      Pretend dancing stinks!
  148. "e" Day == Feb. 71?? by Rahoule · · Score: 1

    The value of e is approximately 2.71828182846. The problem is that the first two digits after the decimal point are "7" and "1". February 71?? I suppose you could use Feb. 7th and use only the first digits after the decimal.

    Another problem is that e is not as well known as pi.

    P.S. Remember how the Commodore 8-bit computers (PET, VIC20, C-64, etc.) had the pi symbol right on their keyboard (shift+ uparrow), and you could use it in your BASIC programs? With today's computers and languages, you must define pi yourself, and you can't type it without a special font.

  149. Not Off-Topic: Pronunciation of "Pi" by Rahoule · · Score: 1

    In most other languages, like French, and probably Greek, itself, where "pi" comes from, "pi" is pronouced like "pee."

    So, I think I might have to "pi" soon, too!

  150. Re: My company's day! by pakratt · · Score: 1

    Not all USA-ers write their dates incorrectly. One day a couple years ago I started thinking about how strange the usual US date format is and ever since I've written my dates day-month-year. Usually to keep from confusing people (like on checks and stuff) I'll actually write out the month rather than use the number. My boss is canadian and he writes his dates year-month-day which struck me as a bit odd. Does anybody know if this is common?


    and when i press my face against the frosted shower stall

  151. we have pi day every year by pakratt · · Score: 1

    my old high school celebrated pi day every year. mu alpha theta (the math club) used it as a way to make money. they have a plywood stand-up that has a pic of "a-cute" angel and a "right" angel with the value of pi painted all around the plywood. the heads of the angels are cut out and teachers and the principle take turns sticking their faces in the holes. students can buy whipped cream pies for a dollar and throw them at their favorite (or least favorite) teacher. my senior year i was working the pi booth at lunch and somebody payed me $5 for a chance to throw one at me (they missed btw).

    and when i press my face against the frosted shower stall

  152. Re: Date/Time (of topic (but more interesting...)) by vlarsen · · Score: 1
    My boss is canadian and he writes his dates year-month-day which struck me as a bit odd. Does anybody know if this is common?

    Not only "common", but acutally an ISO standard (8601). See for instance Info on ISO 8601. And I would actually recommend it, for all the reasons mentioned.

    I had a faint hope that the entire world would come to their senses and convert just to be Y2K compatible; but, alas, we are now swamped with those darned "00" dates. I have used the format myself since the mid 90'ies (sp?), but I am of course a self-righteous overachieving little nerd-meister.

    --
    Vidar Larsen
  153. Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) by gauron23 · · Score: 1

    ln(x)!=log(x) for x!=1
    Sorry, but on my calculator I get:

    3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) = 1.3643763538418412510868468801839
    3*ln(640320)/sqrt(163) = 3.1415926535897930164958886531967
    pi = 3.1415926535897932384626433832795


    Click here to crash Windows98

  154. Pi-Mania in the UK by cheekymonkey_68 · · Score: 1

    Talking of Pi...

    Does anyone actually remember that 80's computer game Pi-mania ...
    It ran on ye olde 8 bit's (well the much loved Sinclair Spectrum anyway) and for the life of me I could never fathom it out.

    Did anyone ever actually finish Pi-Mania ?, and if so did they actually win the supposed prize?
    Come on some one must remember the abomination that was Pi-Mania (In the so bad its good category)

  155. Re:Music based on Pi by cheekymonkey_68 · · Score: 1

    How about "Pi Mania" the song
    http://www.nvg.org/data/bbc/audio/PiMania.mp3

  156. More Pi info than you ever wanted. by Konehead · · Score: 1

    If you want to learn more about Pi or maybe about someone who just about worships pi check out Eve Astrid Andersson's page at http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~eveander/

  157. A haiku in honour of Pi Day by a+poor+scribbler · · Score: 1

    Three point one four one
    Five nine two six five three six
    (Rounded up). Hooray!

  158. Distributed Pi by DiamondSulin · · Score: 1

    You can participate in the search for the 1000 trillionth bits (10 e+15) of Pi.

    http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/projects/pihex/pihex.html

    Privious result discovered by PiHex

    The Forty Trillionth Bit of Pi = '0'

    The Five Trillionth Bit of Pi = '0'

    DiamondSulin

  159. Origins of Pi by azaca · · Score: 1

    The earliest calculations of Pi were not done by the Greeks. The Great Pyramid at Giza is traditionally dated at 3500 BC. The ratio of it's circumference to it's height is exactly 2pi to 1. In the Teotihuacan, outside of Mexico city, the temple of the Sun has a circumference to height ratio of 4pi to one. And in both places the only hard scientific data available places their dates at around 10,500 BC. As it became fashionable to analyze the mathematical and astronomical significance of theses ancient buildings(late 80's), scientists began to discover insane mathematical/astronomical puzzles built in to their structures. It's pretty fascinating stuff.

    1. Re:origins of Pi by MindStalker · · Score: 2

      So whats up with the inaccurate 3.1428571
      I'm wondering if its just random typing or are you accually using an ancient version of the number

  160. Pi Party tonight at ArsDigita! by eveander · · Score: 1
    If you're in the Boston area tonight, come to the ArsDigita Pi Party!

    Here's the invitation: http://eve.arsdigita.com/pi-day -invitation-2000.tcl

  161. Uhoh... by ComradePenguin · · Score: 1

    Christ!I just had my PC work out the digits in PI in base 11 notation and after it did a few million digits over the course of 4 days everything stopped and there was only 0's and 1's!Like so:
    0000000000000000000000000
    0000000000011000000000000
    0000000001100110000000000
    0000000110000001100000000
    0000011000000000011000000
    0000000110000001100000000
    0000000001100110000000000
    0000000000011000000000000
    0000000000000000000000000

    Screw SETI@home I'm building my own fricking antenna!
    The source of the data

    --
    ------------------------
    Thus Spake ComradePenguin
  162. The real PI day in the U.S. by Falcor · · Score: 2

    I'm looking forward to 3-14-15 at 9:26:53.59 in the morning. Seems like a much more accurate time / date that the others proposed.

    -Falcor

  163. Re:Value of pi is three according to Bible (no) by washort · · Score: 2

    If you're referring to the basin described as "ten cubits across and thirty cubits in circumference" keep in mind that cubits aren't exact measures as feet/inches/meters are today. if you assume a cubit is about 18 inches, the difference between 30 cubits and 31.4 cubits is about 9 inches or so. this is about 5% error, which isn't extremely unreasonable.

  164. 206 158 430 000 decimal digits of PI !!!!!! by The+GAP · · Score: 2

    Here is a link that will lead you to several numbers like (Pi, e or the Golden Ratio) and how they were calculated http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/piDATA/

    Here is a billion of decimals digits of Pi !!!! http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/piDATA/PI/

    here is an explanation on they're latest record ... 206,158,430,000 digits .... http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/piDATA/pi 206billion.txt

    A lot of things to explore... and memorize

  165. 00-03-14 by redhog · · Score: 2

    In sweden (And possibly other countries), the format of dates are year-month-day, thus it's a bit more accurate. Bad though that MAX_MINUTE=60, otherwise 00-03-14 15/92/65 would have existed...
    --The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.

    --
    --The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
  166. Re:15 Years early... by SoftwareJanitor · · Score: 2

    No, it was already past 408 years ago:

    3-14-1592

  167. Pi by The+Iconoclast · · Score: 2

    Not only is today Pi Day, it is also Albert Einstein's Birthday! Have a Relitivistic Day!

    By amazing coincedence, I was actually watching Pi last night.

    "12:45, Restate my assumptions..."

    A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."

    --
    Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
  168. Re:14-03-00 by GregWebb · · Score: 2

    What makes you think you need 14 months?

    3rd January 2042 works nicely enough by the system they're suggesting here but I'd have to be picky and prefer the same day in 416 or 4159. Neither of which will, I suspect, have been or be seen by anyone in this forum.

    Not even Methuselah was _that_ old...

    Greg

    --

    Greg

    (Inside a nuclear plant)
    Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!

  169. Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) by debrain · · Score: 2

    pi = -2*i*ln(i) by definition.

  170. WRONG! 4 * (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 ...) by prizog · · Score: 2

    the correct fomula is in the subject... but it sucks... 'cause it converges really slowly.

  171. Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) by divec · · Score: 2
    pi = -2*i*ln(i) by definition.

    Yes. You can prove this easily using similar triangles. <cough, cough>

    --

    perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'

  172. pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) by divec · · Score: 2

    ... give or take a bit.

    --

    perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'

  173. Re:Music based on Pi by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

    Whoops, here's the correct URL: Music based on Pi"

  174. Music based on Pi by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

    Right here. Scroll down a bit for Pi, musical compositions based on pi (or down a little bit more for "Two Works"). No kidding. This is from an underground Seattle musician, so you'll be the only person in town with it :) I heard it a few years ago; tis good. Odd, yes, but good.

  175. Cadaeic Cadenza by PurpleBob · · Score: 2
    Those who are interested in Pi should check out Cadaeic Cadenza. It's a mnemonic for 3835 digits of Pi, and a decent novel too.

    In other words, someone had a talent for constrained writing and way too much time on his hands, and this is the result...
    --

    --
    Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
  176. metalab.unc.edu/gutenberg/etext93/pimil10.txt by gbnewby · · Score: 2
    The blurb pointed by FTP to uiarchive.uiuc.edu, one of the Project Gutenberg mirror sites. This only allows 100 simultaneous users, though.

    For the Project Gutenberg edition of the first 10K digits of Pi, try:

    http://metalab.unc.edu/gutenbe rg/etext93/pimil10.txt

  177. Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by spiralx · · Score: 2

    I don't think it's a pissing competition amongst mathematicians so much - there are already a large number of methods worked out to calculate pi - the simplest I can remember is pi/4 = 1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 + 1/5 - ... but more amongst the people with large computers with spare time on their hands :)

  178. Book: History of Pi by gargle · · Score: 2

    There's a book called the "History of Pi" by Peter Beckmann. Click here to find out more, if you're not boycotting Amazon or something like that. It's a fascinating read, not at all dull, and highly opinionated - he doesn't hesistate to dismiss groups of people as morons, like the Romans.

  179. The Miraculous Baily-Borwein-Plouffe Pi Algorithm by jasoegaard · · Score: 2

    Happy pi day.

    This is the perfect occasion to spread the message of

    The Miraculous Baily-Borwein-Plouffe Pi Algorithm

    It is an algorithm to compute the n'th digit of Pi in any base, in
    particular it is possible to compute the n'th decimal digit without
    having to compute the n-1 first digits. This is a truly amazing
    result. We know that pi is irrational (Euler) and that pi is
    trancedental (Lindemann, 1982) and thus is highly irregular. That the
    n'th digit of pi is computable is therefore very surprising. There are
    only a countable number of computer algorithms and thus there are only
    countable any numbers that have the property that their n'th number is
    computable.

    On "Fabrice Bellard's Pi Page":

    http://www-stud.enst.fr/~bellard/pi/index.html#bin ary

    one can find an article that explains the algorithm together with an
    implementaion in c (two pages long). The remarkable thing is that the
    algorithm uses only normal integers and doubles. That is, one need not
    implement arbitrary precision arithmetic.

    The algorithm is new, 1996. In another thread the corresponding
    program is shown for base 16, but I much prefer the base 10 version
    :-)

    References:

    The original article concerning base 10 is

    "On the computation of the n'th decimal digit of various
    transcendental numbers." by Simon Plouffe, November 30, 1996.

    and can be found at

    http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/plouffe/Simon/articlepi.h tml

    History:

    A very readable account of the history of computations of pi is the

    "The quest for pi by Bailey, Plouffe and the Borweins." this can be
    found at

    http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/plouffe/Simon/TheQuestfor Pi.pdf

    Here they also answer why it is fun to compute many digits of pi. In
    the beginning the mathematicians wanted to know many digits of pi to
    find out whether pi was irrational or not. Euler showed that pi was
    irrational (the proof is not that hard). Later Lindemann in 1882
    showed that pi was trancedental, that is pi is root in no polynomial
    with integer coefficents. Today it is customary to compute many digits
    of pi on new super computers. In 1982 sun (?) actually found some
    obscure hardware bug due to a pi program.

    --
    Jens Axel Søgaard -- http://www.jasoegaard.dk

    A Mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
    - Paul Erdös

    --
    -- A Mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. - Paul Erdös
  180. Bad Link by nachoboy · · Score: 2

    The HREF pointing to the official movie site is broken; it in fact leads to http://www.pithmovie.com/" The trailing quote is interpreted as part of the URL and as such, simply 404's.

    Either put the beginning quote in or leave them both out, but at least match it up for those more inclined to click on links instead of typing (and/or fixing them).

  181. pi in hex (java) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    private char nth_pi (int n) {
    // Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe Algorithm for arbitrary digit calculations.
    // only valid upto 2 ^ 24 for java IEEE precision.
    int loop; String Schx = "";
    double piFraction, s1, s2, s3, s4;
    char[] chx = new char[16]; int i,nhx; double y,x;
    char[] hx = {'0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','A','B',' C','D','E','F'};
    s1 = series (1, n);s2 = series (4, n);s3 = series (5, n);
    s4 = series (6, n); piFraction = 4. * s1 - 2. * s2 - s3 - s4;
    piFraction = piFraction - (int) piFraction + 1.;x=piFraction;nhx=16; y = Math.abs(x);
    for (i = 0; i < 16; i++){
    y = 16. * (y - Math.floor (y));
    chx[(int)i] = hx[(int)Math.abs(y)];
    } for (loop=0;loop<16;loop++)
    Schx = Schx + chx[loop];
    return chx[0]; }
    private double series (int m, int n)
    /* sum_k 16^(n-k)/(8*k+m) */
    { int k; double ak, eps, p, s, t; eps = 0.00000000000000001;
    s = 0.;
    for (k = 0; k < n; k++){
    ak = 8 * k + m; p = n - k;
    t = expm (p, ak); s = s + t / ak;
    s = s - (int) s;}
    for (k = n; k <= n + 100; k++){
    ak = 8 * k + m;
    t = Math.pow (16., (double) (n - k)) / ak;
    if (t < eps) break;
    s = s + t; s = s - (int) s;
    } return s; }
    private double expm (double p, double ak)
    /* expm = 16^p mod ak. */
    { int i; int j; double p1, pt, r;
    if (tp1 == 0) {
    tp1 = 1; tp[0] = 1.;
    for (i = 1; i < 25; i++) {tp[i] = 2. * tp[i-1];}} if (ak == 1.) return 0.;
    for (i = 0; i < 25; i++) if (tp[i] > p) break;
    pt = tp[i-1];
    p1 = p;
    r = 1.;
    for (j = 1; j <= i; j++){
    if (p1 >= pt){ r = 16. * r; r = r - (int) (r / ak) * ak;
    p1 = p1 - pt; } pt = 0.5 * pt;
    if (pt >= 1.){ r = r * r;
    r = r - (int) (r / ak) * ak; } }
    return r; }

    and the following are global :

    static int tp1 = 0;
    static double[] tp = new double[25];

  182. Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits by Pete+Bevin · · Score: 3
    Here is the correct FTP link to the 10,000,000 digits of PI: ftp://uiarchiv e.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/etext/gutenberg/etext93/pimil10 .txt

    And here is an HTTP link: http://wuarchive.wustl .edu/doc/gutenberg/etext93/pimil10.txt

  183. As long as we're going for news this nerdy... by Poe · · Score: 3

    So there we were in Topology class. The class was being taught by the "Super Texas" method, which means we are given a few premises, and we work up an entire field of mathematics through proof. Each student had to prove things on the board in front of the other students. I said "OK let's take an irrational number...umm...Pi.." when suddenly, from the back of the class came "how do you know that Pi is irratoinal?" I spent the rest of the class proving it (off the top of my head, with much help from the professor). Needless to say, from then on, we used 1.01001000100001... or 2^.5 as our favorite irrational numbers.

    --
    Thank you for not thinking.
  184. Indiana nearly set Pi = 3.2 in 1897 by Get+Behind+the+Mule · · Score: 3

    In 1897, the state of Indiana nearly passed a bill decreeing that Pi is equal to 3.2 (it also said that sqrt(2) = 10/7). The bill unanimously passed the state House of Representatives (on a vote of 67-0), and went from there to the Senate. First it was referred to the Committee on Temperance, apparently as a joke, and the committee recommended approval. Then there was a floor debate in the Senate, full of puns and ridicule, in which all of the Senators who spoke admitted their ignorance on the merits of the bill. Importantly, they didn't kill it because it was a mathematical falsehood, but because the Senators thought they shouldn't be writing a law about something like that.

    There's a story about it on the urban legends site. Evidently, a crank mathematician named Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin M.D. "discovered" this new fact about Pi, and offered to let Indiana use it in their school textbooks without royalties if they passed the law. His state Representative bought into it and introduced the bill.

    I wonder if Kansas has any plans these days concerning Pi? :-)

  185. origins of Pi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    Pi? Why, I remember many years ago when I first heard the Story of Pi. I was just a little sprig of a troll, sitting on my grandfather's knee in our cozy little cave beneath the bridge. Oh, those were the days, when goats were plenty, the nights were long and hardly ever did the Karma Whores sell their warez by the river bank. And then there was pi . . .

    What?!?! You NEVER heard the Story of Pi? Well, sit down laddie! Grab yourself a fondue fork and I'll learn you REAL good.

    It all happened many many many many many years ago. Before I was born. Way back in the days of my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad. The world was full of wonders even beyond my senile waxing. It was around this time that the Darkly Darkly wood was Open Sourced to all, and the knights of Slash ran amok spreading their Perl of Wisdom.

    There was one little troll, much like yourself, only not quite as stinky. He was named Bgialtels, and was the brother of my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad. He was an angry little man, as most of us are, and wasn't happy with the Order of the Benevolent Single Druids, of which my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad was a part. He thought that they must be distroyed, and so he came up with a plan.

    Bgialtels summoned demons at the annual Faeries Unified Dinner to run amok over the desert tables. At first everyone ignored them, even my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad, but soon it became a problem. Action needed to be taken. After fourteen hours of havoc, my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad placed upon the table 3.1428571 cherry pies in a carefully calculated place which made the demons slip into the flaming cheese fondue. Screaming in agony, the demons lashed out, managing only to take the final "e" off the word, leaving us with Pi.

    And that, my little friends, is where easter . . . I mean PI came from.

    thankyoutheend

  186. 15 Years early... by BaronM · · Score: 4

    Shouldn't the declaration of Pi day wait until 3-14-15?