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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! "

36 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. 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

  2. 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!)
  3. 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.

  4. 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
  5. 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

  6. 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.
  7. Re:15 Years early... by SoftwareJanitor · · Score: 2

    No, it was already past 408 years ago:

    3-14-1592

  8. 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

  9. 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,

  10. 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
  11. 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!

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

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

  13. 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.

  14. 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."
  15. 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.

  16. 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"'

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

    ... give or take a bit.

    --

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

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

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

  19. 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.

  20. 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
  21. 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!
  22. 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!
  23. 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

  24. 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 :)

  25. 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.

  26. 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
  27. 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).

  28. 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/.

  29. 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.
  30. 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];

  31. 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

  32. 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.
  33. 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? :-)

  34. 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

  35. 15 Years early... by BaronM · · Score: 4

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

  36. 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?)