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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).'"
Happy pi day :) :)
... No cake for you!
To post this story at 1:59pm, or 12 hours earlier depending upon which clock you prefer.
Surely 22/7 would be pi day.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Bask in its glory!
My work here is dung.
I would not say that it has an unknown value, the value is known as the ratio of a circle's diameter and circumference. Just because our system of representing numbers is flawed in that it cannot accurately define numeric sequences that approach infinity doesn't mean it is unknown... That is like saying 1/3 is unknown just because you can't print enough 3's after the decimal place to be accurate.
Silly boys.
-ellie
March 14, 2015 is going to be awesome. I think we should all coordinate our time off and have city-wide festivals (feastivals!) celebrating pi while eating ungodly amounts of it.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
The Pi is a lie.
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.)
When can we have grammar day? First, it is "whose," as possessive pronouns never use apostrophes. Second, it is not even "whose" because Pi isn't a person.
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Lots of songs have been written about Pi Day (Google "Pi Day Songs" to find 'em).
One of the more creative is this rap song (with video) to the tune of Eminem's LOSE YOURSELF.
Best enjoyed with a slice of pie. Right, Agent Cooper?
Yea maybe you are happy, but I'm 3.14ssed!
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
This schema fails if you continue to minutes and seconds:
.14159265 months .3893706 days .3448944 hours .693664 minutes .61984 seconds
March 14, 15:92:65
The proper representation is modular-place arithmetic. Instead of assuming each number chunk is either decimal or hundreds, you use the actual size of the place. The Calendar places are:
12 months
31 days
24 hours
60 minutes
60 seconds
So 3.14159265 is
3 months, remainder
4 days, remainder
9 hours, remainder
20 minutes, remainder
42 seconds, remainder
In other words March 4 9:20:43
at least in the engineering department. We are having pie as a group at 1:59 this afternoon.
BTW, today is also Albert Einstein's birthday.
My favorite part about this pi calculator are the two words at the end.
3/14 sound more like American Pi day. In most other places it is 31/4.
Oh, wait they don't get to celebrate at all!
I'm saving the pie for "pi approximation day" which is the 22. of july (22/7 = 3.1428571428).
Like this guy:
http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000955.html
For those of us on 64 bit surely:
is the next pi moment.You 32bit suckers have already passed the last one:
And a long wait for the next pi moment after that:
Cosine Secant Tangent Sine! Three Point One Four One Five Nine!
Hm, just by the way, already noticed that Pi multiplied with 13,37 is approximately 42? Mathematics definitely play an important role for solving the answer to life, the universe, and everything...
A good education is a bit like a STD - it makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and gives you a desire to spread it.
Not sure if anyone has mention this book (link : http://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Pi-Petr-Beckmann/dp/0312381859/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205526089&sr=8-1 ) :)
I found it entertaining and easy to read while at the same being informative/interesting. I feel the book gives a very good presentation of the thought process behind how different civilizations reached their approximation of Pi and a good insight into how brilliant people of different times where able to calculate Pi. I bet a lot of "ordinary" people wouldn't have a clue about how to find a good number for Pi, without hitting their "Pi"-button on a calculator
A good read. Very nice addition to say, your toilet library (I've got one...)
rj
What is the volume of a pizza of radius z and thickness a?
Answer: pi*z*z*a
The patron saint of imperfection frees us from our sin.
And if our transcendental lift shall find a final floor,
Then Man will know the death of God where wonder was before.
Enjoy Pi day as it should be enjoyed.
"pi is an approximation of the ratio of diameter:circumference"
PI is exactly the ratio of diameter:circumference, we can only express it as an approximation in our number system.
PI = (ln -1)/(sqrt-1)
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on