Happy International Pi Day

[interested_learner]

All of you have a happy international Pi day.

 

[Ki Man]

pi=3.13? may want to check those calculations again =]

 

[d_leet]

It's not pi day yet..

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

woohoo, pi day is finally here! :uhh: :tongue: Can't wait til pi+0.01 day

 

[d_leet]

woohoo, pi day is finally here! :uhh: :tongue: Can't wait til pi+0.01 day

Another hour and a half for me..

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Lol, I feel your pain.

 

[mattmns]

Hmmmm, $\pi$

 

[neutrino]

I'd rather remember today as Einstein's birth anniversary, and wait till April 31st for pi-day.

 

[hypatia]

pi day again already? Just where has the year gone? I didn't even get my pi day shopping done.

 

[radou]

Are there e and i days, too? :tongue2:

 

[neutrino]

Are there e and i days, too? :tongue2:

e-day: 27th January
i-day: e^(i*pi/2) = 27th Jan^(i*31st April/2) = :uhh:

 

[radou]

The only problem is, how to decide if it's celebrated at 3:14 am or 3:14 pm.

 

[neutrino]

The only problem is, how to decide if it's celebrated at 3:14 am or 3:14 pm.

3.14 is taken care of by the date. So you celebrate it at 1:59:26(.5) in the morning (or in the afternoon if you don't use a 24-hour clock).

 

[humanino]

The only problem is, how to decide if it's celebrated at 3:14 am or 3:14 pm.

I don't see it as a problem. We can precisely define pi's birth in this scheme, minutes second and everything, can't we ?

I mean :
month day hour minute sec...
3 14 15 9 27

now, maybe I see your objection
why not :
month day hour minute sec...
3 1 1 9 2
or :
month day hour minute sec...
3 14 1 59 27
...

indeed, I assumed that one fills as much decimal places as possible at each step. Thus for instance I took 9 minutes, because 92 minutes exceeds 60=1h... This might be a little simplistic, or even unesthetical. But eh, why not celebrating on the first of march otherwise ?

A more esthetical solution, would be to write down everything in a decimal basis.

 

[humanino]

3.14 is taken care of by the date. So you celebrate it at 1:59:26(.5) in the morning (or in the afternoon if you don't use a 24-hour clock).

I do use a 24-hour clock, but I would have thought we need to pick up 15:9:26

this is highly debatable...

 

[radou]

Now you see it indeed is a sophisticated issue, gentlemen.

 

[radou]

Oh yes, and there's another issue. In my country, we write the day first, and then the month, so we have no pi day! Which proves that the pi day is a those-who-write-the-month-first-o-centric product. Down with it! :tongue2:

 

[Math Is Hard]

Pi day at last! Can't wait to get up to campus at lunch time. Usually the math department sells yummy pie slices for a buck.

 

[neutrino]

Oh yes, and there's another issue. In my country, we write the day first, and then the month, so we have no pi day! Which proves that the pi day is a those-who-write-the-month-first-o-centric product. Down with it! :tongue2:

And that's why I said that I would rather wait will April 31st. This is strictly a US-centric Pi-day.

 

[MotolovCocktail]

I know the first 120 digits of pi:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651


whew!

thats all I know off the top of my head.

 

[humanino]

thats all I know off the top of my head.

so, what is the accuracy with which you can calculate the circumference of the galaxy, supposing you know it's diameter with a precision equivalent to that of the size of the proton ?

 

[radou]

I know the first 120 digits of pi:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651


whew!

thats all I know off the top of my head.

Did you have a pi-digit-listing contest today? :tongue:

 

[Physics is Phun]

haha, our math building had free pie for all starting at 1:59 this afternoon.
and you can also buy pi day t-shirts for pi^2 dollars ($9.87)

 

[radou]

and you can also buy pi day t-shirts for pi^2 dollars ($9.87)

Did someone actually buy one of these? :rofl:

 

[SticksandStones]

Wow, 120 digits eh?
I know:
3.141592653597932384626

22 digits...

 

[MotolovCocktail]

so, what is the accuracy with which you can calculate the circumference of the galaxy, supposing you know it's diameter with a precision equivalent to that of the size of the proton ?

I don't really know the exact measurements of the galaxy, in fact nobody on Earth does. However, the galactic disk has been estimated to have a radius of 60,000 light years. Based on this figure, I would estimate the circumference to be around 360,000 light years. Or, if you want a more accurate figure (assuming pi = 3.14), it is somewhere between 376,800 - 378,000 light years.

Did you have a pi-digit-listing contest today? :tongue:

No, unfortunately. In fact, even the math geeks in my class were unenthusiastic about it (probably because of social pressure ). But, even if we did at my school, I would have still owned them. Most people don't remember past 3.14, and most of the so-called math-wiz's in my school know only about 20 digits or so.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

memorizing pi isn't math.

There is no more use to memorizing pi than to memorizing a random number. Although the story of the calculation of pi is very interesting.

If the math 'whiz's' spent their time memorizing pi, they wouldn't have time to become good at math.

 

[mattmns]

One of my high school math teachers said he used to memorize pi (while a math grad student at UIUC) to impress his friends (I think he said that he knew a few hundred digits). I never understood why anyone would bother memorizing pi, I can't even think of the last time I used pi.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

My calculator knows pi to 10 digits, that's good enough for my uses. lol :)

I can sort of understand it, I mean, it is an important number.. But at the end of the day its probably better to memorize something that can be used. (other than to impress friends)

Definitely no more useful then memorizing any random number :P Its kind of odd that someone would think that a math student should know pi to more then 10 decimal places.

 

[MeJennifer]

My calculator knows pi to 10 digits, that's good enough for my uses. lol :)

I can sort of understand it, I mean, it is an important number.. But at the end of the day its probably better to memorize something that can be used. (other than to impress friends)

Definitely no more useful then memorizing any random number :P Its kind of odd that someone would think that a math student should know pi to more then 10 decimal places.

Well in principle you don't have to memorize it, afteral there is a formula that gives you the value of any particular digit of $\pi$.

 

[humanino]

My earlier point was the following : when I perform calculations, I have never been able to trust results after the 10th digit. We all work with finite accuracy machines and measurements anyway. So memorizing pi is just a game. Is it not funnier to memorize jokes, or novels, or ... more useful information ? :uhh:

 

[MotolovCocktail]

My, my. Just because I know 120 digits of pi you automatically assume that I have no life. I don't spend a large amount of my time memorizing digits of pi.

I don't have any idea how your brains work, but for me, it does not take me a long time to memorize a large amount of information. It took me about 30 seconds to memorize the first 40 or so digits, and that was because I was bored one day. The rest of the 120 digits came over time.

And another thing is that I never forget. I can remember all the specific details about anything I have seen or done, even if several years have passed from that point in time.

And besides, why don't you want to be able to memorize hundreds of digits. Being able to memorize large amounts of data is a very useful skill, and one that I employ for the task of defending my computer systems from hackers and other malicious software. My security passwords for my computer are between 25-30 digits long (and no, it isn't digits of pi so don't even think about it), let's see if a hacker can get through that!

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Hey no, don't get me wrong. I definitely can't judge you on your first post and say you have no life...

No, unfortunately. In fact, even the math geeks in my class were unenthusiastic about it (probably because of social pressure ). But, even if we did at my school, I would have still owned them. Most people don't remember past 3.14, and most of the so-called math-wiz's in my school know only about 20 digits or so.

I was simply responding to this. You seem to think that the math 'geeks' should know pi to 20 digits and the fact that you do and they don't means something. Memorizing pi doesn't mean you have no life in my book, maybe you enjoy a challenge. But if you came up to me and said "what do you mean you don't have the first ten phone numbers in the phone book memorized, aren't you supposed to be good at math?" I'd laugh at you. Memorizing pi isn't math, . (I wouldn't call myself a math geek at all, but I am just trying to suggest a point).

Anyways, yea. Happy 'pi day' regardless :-)

PS - 30 digit passwords? Doesn't it look kinda funny when it takes you 10 seconds to type in your password? lol :)

 

[neutrino]

What's wrong with e? Why don't more people memorise the digits of e? Motolov, I think it's up to you, then. :tongue:

 

[d_leet]

What's wrong with e? Why don't more people memorise the digits of e? Motolov, I think it's up to you, then. :tongue:

I've pondered this as well, and at that I think the world record for memorizing digits of e is only about 700 or so digits which is rather pathetic compared to how many digits of pi people memorize.