Happy "National Pi Day"

[Ninjamom]

To all my fellow-geeks, it is time once again to celebrate our favorite number: pi

Pi Day (March 14 or 3-14) is named in honor of
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399365 10582097494459230781640680899862803482342117067982 14808651328230664709384460959058223172535940812848 11174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819628 810975665933446728475648237867831652...

Brief History of Pi

Pi was mentioned in 1 Kings 7:23 being used:
"He (Solomon) made the sea of cast metal circular in shape, measuring 10 cubits from rim to rim {diameter=10} and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it" {circumference =30}
Pi can be concluded to be approximately 3, to the first significant digit, according to the Bible.

At about 1650 BC, Egyptians used pi = 3 but improved this to (22 / 7). They also used (256/81), as shown in The Egyptian Rhind Papyrus.

Another known reference to Pi is on a Middle Kingdom papyrus scroll, written around the same time of the Egyptians by Ahmes the scribe.

In around 200 BC Archimedes of Syracuse found that Pi was between (223 / 71) and (22 / 7). His error was no more than 0.008227 %. He did this by approximating a circle as a 96-sided polygon

How Pi arose:

Oughtred in 1647, used the symbol d/p for the ratio of the diameter of a circle to it's circumference. David Gregory used p /r for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's radius.

The Greek letter pi was first used in 1706 by English mathematician William Jones and became popular when Leonhard Euler adopted it in 1737.

Timeline of how many digits pi has been calculated to:

1699: Sharp used Gregory's results to get 71 digits
1701: Machin got to 100 digits
1719: de Lagny found 112 digits
1789: Vega acheived 126 digits
1794: Vega was able to calculate 136 digits correctly
1841: Rutherford calculated 152 digits
1853: Twelve years later, Rutherford was able to get 440 digits
1873: Shanks got to the 707 place, but 527 of them were incorrect
1949: Super computers were used to calculate to 2000 places
1991: The Chudnovsky brothers in New York calculated 2,260,321,363 decimal places
2000+: As computers get faster and more powerful, the known digits of pi should also get much longer and massive...

Here are some great internet sites with more information about pi!
The Joy of Pi http://www.joyofpi.com/
The Pi Trivia Game http://eveander.com/trivia/
Greg's Page of Pi http://www.paperpen.com/greg/pi/

So, how are you going to celebrate?

 

[Carol]

At work at my engineering job of course.

But then again, it's all Greek to me :rofl:

 

[crushing]

Pi gets its own day, but others the like Phi don't? Sounds like ratio profiling!




Happy Pi Day!

 

[Empty Hands]

Don't forget National Mole Day, in honor of the mole (Avogadro's Number), on October 23. 10/23 = 10^23

 

[Kacey]

Pi gets its own day, but others the like Phi don't? Sounds like ratio profiling!

***groan***

Happy Pi Day!

Right back at'cha!

 

[Ninjamom]

Don't forget National Mole Day, in honor of the mole (Avogadro's Number), on October 23. 10/23 = 10^23

..and of course you know what "Avocado's Number" is, right?

It's the number of atoms in a guacaMole :rofl:

 

[terryl965]

Pi gets its own day, but others the like Phi don't? Sounds like ratio profiling!




Happy Pi Day!

I totally agree the is ratio profillinjg as well

Happy PI day

 

[exile]

Pi gets its own day, but others the like Phi don't? Sounds like ratio profiling!

***groan***

C'mon, Kacey, you gotta give the devil his due... That was... lovely! The only problem is that I'm going to walk around upset for the rest of the day because I didn't think of it!

 

[Kreth]

So did everyone celebrate at 1:59:26?

 

[arnisador]

Hurray for Pi!

 

[Touch Of Death]

Pi gets its own day, but others the like Phi don't? Sounds like ratio profiling!




Happy Pi Day!

I was going to say fiddle de phi to this whole thread but that was funny!
Sean

 

[Empty Hands]

It's the number of atoms in a guacaMole :rofl:

Niiiiice. *groan* :barf:

 

[Kacey]

C'mon, Kacey, you gotta give the devil his due... That was... lovely! The only problem is that I'm going to walk around upset for the rest of the day because I didn't think of it!

I was giving the devil his due... that was one of those puns that was so bad it was good.

 

[Ninjamom]

Personally, I think all this discussion of "pi vs. phi" is completely irrational, and while the problem of ratio profiling might be real, it is definitely NOT complex.