Happy Tau Day

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Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday June 28, 2011 @02:48AM from the look-how-round-it-is dept.

Forget about Pi Day, today we celebrate something twice as good: Tau Day. For far too long, Pi has been the bride and Tau has been the bridesmaid. As Michael Hartl points out in The Tau Manifesto, "Pi is a confusing and unnatural choice for the circle constant." He is giving a talk at the California Institute of Technology based on the Manifesto, with pie served at the end. "Twice as many as you might expect," he says.

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Mmmm pi by Goose+In+Orbit · 2011-06-28 02:57 · Score: 2

As Weebl and Bob might say...
Fuck that, I've created Upsilon! by elrous0 · 2011-06-28 03:00 · Score: 3, Funny

It's 4*Pi, which makes it TWICE as kick-ass as Tau!

--
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Re:really scraping the bottom of the barrel by Roobles · 2011-06-28 03:05 · Score: 2

No, I wouldn't call this news for nerds. Because it's not news. But I do think it's relevant to nerds, especially those that take interest math and music.

It's creative. It's mathematical. It's something that a non-nerd would struggle to appreciate. It's even under idle. So what's the problem?
Always show your work by Maximum+Prophet · 2011-06-28 03:06 · Score: 2, Funny

Back in 7th grade the teacher wanted us to show our work. Most of the time I could figure out the stuff in my head, so I didn't want to do that. In order to freak out the teacher, I memorized the multiplication table of (single digit) * 3.14

After that I could write stuff like 67*pi = 188.40 + 21.98 = 210.38 (vertically)

The teacher never commented on showing my work after that...

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1. Re:Always show your work by geekoid · 2011-06-28 03:39 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Then you teacher failed. Showing your work is about knowing the procedure to do something.
  Even the dimmest child can look at: 4 * X = 8 and KNOW X=2. But the real lesson is showing the work so when it's not that easy you can get a correct answer.
  You use an easy example so when they finish going through the correct steps they can know they did it correctly.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
2. Re:Always show your work by AikonMGB · 2011-06-28 04:03 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Now for the anecdote part relating how a "one-size-fits-all" education scheme doesn't work in practice:
  In elementary school, my brother's teacher would give the class spelling quizzes. He scored 100% on the first quiz. The second quiz rolled around and he scored 100% again. He was distraught because many of his colleagues had gotten stickers on their returned quizzes as rewards, and yet he had gotten nothing. The teacher's explanation was that the rewards were for improvement on the quizzes -- if you did better than last time, you got a sticker.
  His response was to intentionally fail the subsequent quiz, and then slowly build up his score to 100%, and then restart the process. The teacher was concerned about his inconsistent spelling skills and thought he might have problems with distraction; my parents understood what had happened immediately.
  When you reduce education to the lowest common denominator, you remove any chance for the gifted, the skilled, the interested, and the excited students to excel at their studies.
  Aikon-
3. Re:Always show your work by Roger+W+Moore · 2011-06-28 04:22 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  One of the worst things you can do to a student that truly understands the material is to drag them down and force them to do what they consider menial tasks.
  Exactly. What the teacher should have done is give them a question that they cannot do in their heads. If they can do 67pi then how about 67e or 123*sqrt(3) etc. That does not drag them down but does teach them that, smart as they are, there are always more difficult problems out there so they should not get too cocky.
4. Re:Always show your work by NeutronCowboy · 2011-06-28 04:23 · Score: 2
  
  Showing your work to me was never a benefit for me. Grading homework, I actually much preferred the people who just put down the answer. Is it right? Full points. Is it wrong? Zero points. I could whip through a 20 part homework in about 30 seconds flat. When they showed their work, I actually had to follow through and check for mistakes. It was 100% upside for the students: if they made a boneheaded mistake (64 bitshifted twice to the right = 256), they got nearly full points. Showing your work meant that you got at least 50% of the points, unless you totally, completely screwed up basic principles.
  Not to mention it's a valuable skill later in life: very few people just take you at your word, and you shouldn't take anyone at their word as well. Make them show you their work. Proper presentation of reasoning is at least as valuable in convincing people as the position itself.
  
  --
  Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
5. Re:Always show your work by jfengel · 2011-06-28 05:25 · Score: 2
  
  Then your teacher failed at teaching you about significant figures. 67*pi=210.49, not 210.38. The difference is small, but you were only working with 3 significant figures of pi, so everything past the decimal point is going to be random. It just so happens that the next decimal places are small (.00159), which helps on the next digit, but the final digit is pretty much entirely junk.
  210 is good enough for most purposes, for the same reason that 3.14 is good enough for most purposes, and the teacher should have marked extra digits as wrong. Honestly, it was easier to leave it at 67*pi, and more correct.
6. Re:Always show your work by Just+Some+Guy · 2011-06-28 05:29 · Score: 2
  
  And my teacher taught my that "seperate" is a verb, while "separate" is an adjective. She also taught the hard-and-fast "i before e" rule and caused me to lose a spelling bee, ironically by misspelling "forfeit".
  I'll believe pretty much any crazy story you tell me about dumb ways of teaching spelling.
  
  --
  Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Re:really scraping the bottom of the barrel by AmaDaden · 2011-06-28 03:08 · Score: 2

Yes. The idea of a mathematical notation that has been around for generations being replaced with something that makes more sense is something I would consider "News for nerds". While the idea has been spoken about before on slashdot and thus Tau it self is not news, Today being a day to promote it is news.
IT'S ALSO WORLD CAPSLOCK DAY by CmdrPorno · 2011-06-28 03:30 · Score: 2

(Which apparently triggers the lameness filter...)
IN MEMORY OF BILLY MAYS! DON'T JUST CLEAN IT, SCREAM AT IT!
Why does the lameness filter think Billy Mays is lame?

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Sent from my iPhone
Re:They've got a point by As_I_Please · 2011-06-28 03:33 · Score: 2

e^(i*tau) - 1 = 0
Re:Tau pffft... by tepples · 2011-06-28 03:45 · Score: 2

I have never heard "Shut your Tau hole!"
That's because the Tau that can be shut is not the true Tau.
Re:Yin and yang by mr_mischief · 2011-06-28 04:08 · Score: 3, Funny

So the tau that can be named is not the true tau?
Re:They've got a point by Volante3192 · 2011-06-28 04:39 · Score: 2

You lose the addition and the zero, though. If ANYTHING in math can be considered fundamental, it's + and 0, along with 1.
Everything else is gravy.
Simplifying the equation loses the elegance it has. Also, tacking "+ 0" to the end of the tau version is an uglier hack than "+1 = 0"...when do you ever regularly add zero.
Re:They've got a point by Volante3192 · 2011-06-28 04:47 · Score: 2

You lose the concepts of addition and zero in that.
The elegance of e^(i*pi)+1=0 is that it includes addition, multiplication, exponents, e, i, pi, 0, 1 and equality.
Basically, everything that forms the foundations of math is included. You exclude zero and addition, well, who cares if you're using pi, tau, lambda or cheese whiz?