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Happy Pi Day
Jonathan writes "Today, the 14th of March, is Pi Day 2008. Pi Day is internationally celebrated in honor of the mathematical constant "Pi," who's actual value will — now and forever — remain unknown. NeoSmart Technologies has a run-down on the history of Pi, Pi Day, and the significance of Pi and other such "magical numbers" to science and technology. 'Pi isn't just a number that you can use to calculate circle-related mathematics, it's a symbol of something by far greater. Pi is one of many "magic" numbers that are found everywhere — if you know where to look. These magic numbers can't be explained, they just are. And if you use them right, they make it a lot easier to do a lot of really complicated things... In a way, they're a testimony to technology and computers (or vice-versa, depending on how you look at it).'"
It's already 3/14, that's why you celebrate it at 1:59.. 3/14 1:59
Most of the world (non-US) writes 22/7. They also write 14/3. So why is this international Pi day?
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains. - Evilest Doe
3.1415926535897932384626433832795
It takes excellent timing to do it at 03:14:59.26535897.....
Even so, I can't wait until 02:06:53.58979 May 9, A.D. 3141. Or should that be March 14, 1592, oh wait, too late. Maybe we can do it at 03:14:15 in '92.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
But no system of representing numbers could express pi's relationship to 1 exactly without an infinite amount of information. We can express a method of calculating pi, for instance, but the method must necessarily have an infinite number of steps. That means the value cannot be found exactly, so in some sense it is very much "unknown".
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
In the universally preferred notation (except for those who take being non-conformist to absurd levels), you'll mean the year 3141, May 9th at 2:53.58am in the morning.
So we didn't miss it - but we will be missing it, as none of us are going to be living to be that old.
Then again, this is all based on the current calendar (arbitrary) and how you interpret the numbers (arbitrary) as well as the date/time notation (arbitrary, as pointed out above) ( the last two being related to eachother as there's no, say, 31st of april.)
pi would be expressed as 10 (in base pi).
1.0 (in base pi) is 1*pi^0 is 1.
Don't you mean 10 (base pi)?
1.0 (base pi) is still 1 (base anything).
"infinite amount of information"? Only if you're the sort of person who calls any bigger-than-linear increase "exponential". Words have meanings, and scientific/mathematical words have very precise meanings.
Here's a complete representation of the value of \pi:
That's only 368 bits of information, and I'm sure there are more compact encodings of the value.
Unlimited growth == Cancer.
Indeed, descending order of significance is the only order that makes sense. All other systems are local perversions.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.