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Mathematicians Use Mossberg 500 Pump-Action Shotgun To Calculate Pi
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "Imagine the following scenario. The end of civilization has occurred, zombies have taken over the Earth and all access to modern technology has ended. The few survivors suddenly need to know the value of pi and, being a mathematician, they turn to you. What do you do? According to a couple of Canadian mathematicians, the answer is to repeatedly fire a Mossberg 500 pump action shotgun at a square aluminum target about 20 meters away. Then imagine that the square is inscribed with an arc drawn between opposite corners that maps out a quarter circle. If the sides of the square are equal to 1, then the area of the quarter circle is pi/4. Next, count the number of pellet holes that fall inside the area of the quarter circle as well as the total number of holes. The ratio between these is an estimate of the ratio between the area of the quarter circle and the area of a square, or in other words pi/4. So multiplying this number by 4 will give you an estimate of pi. That's a process known as a Monte Carlo approximation and it is complicated by factors such as the distribution of the pellets not being random. But the mathematicians show how to handle these too. The result? According to this method, pi is 3.13, which is just 0.33 per cent off the true value. Handy if you find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world."
In a post apocalypse zombie filled world I'd just say "3" and keep the shotgun shells.
":...being a mathematician, they turn to you." You're not much of a mathematician if you don't already know the value of Pi out to several decimal places without the need to expel valuable ammo in an experiment. /john
a gun to calculate Pi value...
The engineers answer: ask someone who went to school before the zombies arrived. Mind you, an engineer probably wouldn't have to bother. Rhetorical question: I wonder how Euclid managed?
First, pack at least couple solar powered calculators. You can get cheap scientific calculators at the dollar store. They'll be worth their weight in gold during the second Renaissance. Second, don't give the mathematician any weapons. Let him be a mule, carrying any tech books you find along the way. Give him a pencil and pad of paper and let him re-derive the whole of known mathematics.
"And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one rim to the other it was round all about, and...a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about....And it was an hand breadth thick...." — First Kings, chapter 7, verses 23 and 26
30/10 = 3
Bible Pi = 95.493% accurate
Shotgun Pi = 99.67% accurate
This reminded me of a story my wife told thinking it made her math teacher sound smart. She said that they sat down and figured out that it was most efficient to mow their lawn in a series of circles rather than in a rectangle or lines like most people do. I facepalmed and she asked me why.
I responded with something along the lines of, "I'm sure they figured out that mowing in circles is theoretically more efficient, except that most lawn mowers have a finite turn radius that makes it impractical and push mowers can't cut while turning since they have to be lifted."
"Also, people tend to get dizzy going in circles for more than a few seconds, so unless they employ a ballerina to do their lawn mowing, all they showed it why you don't ask a mathematician to solve an engineering problem."
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
I'm wondering if they got results without a choke, or at full choke. This might be statistically significant.
Just keep firing, soldier! Accuracy will improve.
And that is of course the reason these guys used this particular method to estimate pi: not "science", but as an excuse to blast away with a shotgun. As if you need an excuse for that...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
That's a lot of numerological bullshit. The truth is much simpler. The Bible says it's 10 cubits across and 30 cubits around. The diameter is provided with one significant figure, and the circumference is also provided with one significant figure. Dividing the two gives you pi... to one significant figure. Anyone who says "this proves that the Biblical authors thought pi = 3.00 [3 significant figures]" must not have done very well in physics class.
They would only need confidence in the random distribution of holes in the target.
Goddamn mathematician wasting precious ammunition to have a statistics wank-fest after MY goddamn zombie apocalypse?
I'd put a random distribution of holes in his worthless head!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Come to Tennessee or Indiana and drive out in the country. Pretty much half the stop signs have already been prepped for you - you just have to count holes.
Do you have ESP?
Probably without. First, choking deprives your brain of oxygen, making such intellectual efforts as calculating the value of pi much more difficult. Second, any attempt at choking a shotgun-armed mathematician is not just unlikely to be successful but an outright bad idea in general.
Ezekiel 23:20