Happy Pi Day! 213
BlueCalx- writes "Today (March 14, 3-14-00) is Pi Day. ticalc.org has a feature on calculating pi and its origins. A search engine exists to search for a string of numbers in the first ten million digits of pi. And of course, there is the first million digits of pi. Eat pie, memorize pi, and watch Pi. I've got my day planned! "
Kansas (Score:1)
Humor icon???? (Score:1)
Recipe for pi (Score:1)
How far can you get?
Pointless .siggery (Score:1)
--Phil (And yes, I know that you don't care.)
PI the movie (Score:1)
Re:Yea...but (Score:1)
e^(pi * i) = 1 which unites all the constants we need to know about.
--rama
Re:Yea...but (Score:1)
e^(Pi*i) = -1
Actually, in mathematics alot of equations are named after the _second_ person to use the equation to avoid naming everything after Euler.
Re: Date/Time (of topic (but more interesting...)) (Score:1)
slashdot.org
origin = slashdot.org
mail addr = malda.slashdot.org
serial = 2000022300
Is this a joke? (Score:1)
Yay! Pi day! (Score:1)
Last year we went and figured out the error in the 100 digits of Pi that is carved in stone in Portland's Westbound light rail tunnel.
And don't forget Pi approximation day. 7/22.
Re:PI == 3.20 (Score:1)
Evidently in 2 Kings they describe an urn in Solomon's temple or something as being one cubit across and three around. That would make the ratio between the two 3.
Friends of Pi (Freunde der Zahl Pi) (Score:1)
http://www.ast.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_club.ht
or
http://www.ast.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_klub.ht
(German version).
Re:Friends of Pi (Freunde der Zahl Pi) (Score:1)
http://www.astro.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_club.
and
http://www.astro.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/pi_klub.
Re: My company's day! (Score:1)
>year-month-day which struck me as a bit odd. Does
>anybody know if this is common?
I'm Canadian, and it's basically a whatever-you-like kind of thing in my part of the country (New Brunswick, Acadian peninsula). American culture is pretty dominant (this *is* North America, after all), but there's enough monarchists, and native french speakers, and first-generation immigrants that it's all pretty messed up. Fortunately, the bank tellers and cashiers here are quick enough to realize what a person means when they write 001504, 4/15/2000 or 15,04,00. I've seen all three, and many more, around here.
Ever since discovering the Internet and finding that most technical people I've met use DDMMYYYY, I've always written it like that just to avoid confusion. Besides, it just makes sense. Smallest unit to largest unit.
Re:Bad Link (Score:1)
http://www.pithmovie.com/
vs
http://www.pithemovie.com/
Nope....PI day is a myth... (Score:1)
I already submitted this! (Score:1)
-mark
Re:I already submitted this! (Score:1)
go to the site. (actually, its not that obvious, there is no year, but it does say 13th annual, and last year was the 12th)
-mark
Re:15 Years early... (Score:1)
Re:15 Years early... (Score:1)
mmm...canada (Score:1)
I noticed on my Canadian Tax return form that we write in the date YYYY-MM-DD.
I've noticed that UK writers tend to hand-write dates as eg. 3rd March 1999, whereas USAer's and younger Canadians would tend to use March 3rd 1999.
I believe I was taught in elemantary school to use the former, but all my digital watches display the date MM-DD, so that's how I started writing it. Then I moved to the USA for high school and fit right in.
Now I'm back in Canada, and for my own uses and for the clock on my Mac, I use USA format: MM/DD/YYYY, but always use a leading zero for the Day, but not the Month, just in case.
In any case, I notice most people say March 15, hence the use of MM/DD.
Pope
Re:Yea...but (Score:1)
e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0
(to get both the additive and multiplicative identities in there).
More Pi nuttiness (Score:1)
Re: My company's day! (Score:1)
Definitely. :-)
Mnemonic for pi (from "Bluff your way in mathematics"):
(Count the letters in each word).
The book claims that various obscene versions can be found on the walls of the lavatories in various maths or science departments. (Except at the Cavendish and DAMPT, where they have blackboards in the loos anyway, of course).
Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) (Score:1)
Re:Wrong ! (Score:1)
Re:A new calendar? (Score:1)
The suppliers for the data used lots of different date formats and often entered dd/mm/yy data into an mm/dd/yy format sheet, thereby invalidating dates.
I wrote a nifty algorithm which trends the dates on the sheet and makes a guess at the intended format. When you have a load of dates, you can quite easily work out what the date should be 99% of the time, even if the dates were entered incorrectly.
Excel partly uses the separators (eg, whether a date is entered as 01/02/03 or 01-02-03) to determine the intended format.
Starting in 2001, just under half of all dates expressed with two-digit years are going to be thoroughly ambiguous. This will last until 2012!
Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits (Score:1)
Re:I already submitted this! (Score:1)
Actually, try to discuss Slashdot here [slashdot.org].
Re:Wrong ! (Score:1)
At 9:27:45 pm, eastern time, to be exact.
The next won't happen for quite a while.
The PI minute (Score:1)
This is assuming we are using the U.S. notation of mm/dd/yy hh:mm for date/time format.
Otherwise, using YYYY/mm/dd hh:mm you have to wait until the year May 9, 3141 for: 3141/5/9 to come around.
Corrected link to 400M digits (Score:1)
Offtopic: Computing e (natural logarithm base)? (Score:1)
PI == 3.20 (Score:1)
Silly americans
Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits (Score:1)
What I don't get is: We know it is an irrational number so this is will go on forever. Is there any practical use to knowing PI with such precision or is it just a pissing contest among mathematicians?
Lightweights (Score:1)
download up to 51 billion digits of pi [u-tokyo.ac.jp]
there's only 4.2 billion digits available for public download, but up to 51 billion can be downloaded by request (if you get them to email 51 billion digits to you, cc me
Re:"e" Day == Feb. 71?? (Score:1)
Use the European standard -- 27.1, i.e., 27 January.
Did? They're still there, even if the company isn't. Along with the monetary pound sign, which had an acquaintance of mine swearing up and down that clearly Commodore was a British company, and using rather charming circular logic (which I can't remember) to try to prove it. Oy.
HERESY (Score:1)
How dare you forget Georg Cantor???
A new calendar? (Score:1)
Rob "30 days hath September..." Novak
Re:Music based on Pi (Score:1)
Although it's a bit out of date, since it fails to mention the Linux revolution, even though that is clearly mentioned in the song ("do you have faith in God above, if the Bible tells you so" is a clear reference to Linus...)
Pi(e) day at U(Waterloo) (Score:1)
I think Nortel Networks sponsored the event. You know you're in a geek-heaven university when...
mmmm... bumbleberry pie... yum!
Re:Does super-pi really matter? (Score:1)
Perhaps you meant Planck? or perhaps I'm wrong.
sorry. couldn't resist.
ticalc.org features on slashdot? (Score:1)
Anyway, why hasn't anyone posted with how many digits of pi they have memorized (like they have all over the ticalc page)? I must admit I can only do 31 from memory, which is a lot for most poeple, but not very much at all compared to some freaks. 231 was the most claimed so far on the ticalc.org page, 45 the most I've seen in person, and I believe the world record is over 40,000. Yes, that's 40,000.
(There's no point in me posting the actual digits because there's no proof that I memorized them. The claim is just as valid as the digits, on a web forum.)
Funny tips on memorizing pi to 100 decimal places (Score:1)
Re:15 Years early... (Score:1)
Of course, the perfect Pi day would have been 3/14/1593, unless you want to wait a lonnng time and celebrate on 3/14/15926..! (ad nauseaum)
Wheeee....
Re:we have pi day every year (Score:1)
Re:What's the _real_ record? (Score:1)
Consider yourself lucky for having a weird memory
_____________________
step one: place
Somebody has to say it... (Score:1)
Better start making plans...
Damn! (Score:1)
Re:Music based on Pi (Score:1)
>
> THE PI SONG
> (to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree")
>
> Oh, number Pi
> Oh, number Pi
> Your digits are unending,
> Oh, number Pi
> Oh, number Pi
> No pattern are you sending.
> You're three point one four one five nine,
> And even more if we had time,
> Oh, number Pi
> Oh, number Pi
> For circle lengths unbending.
>
> Oh, number Pi
> Oh, number Pi
> You are a number very sweet,
> Oh, number Pi
> Oh, number Pi
> Your uses are so very neat.
> There's 2 Pi r and Pi r squared,
> A half a circle and you're there,
> Oh, number Pi
> Oh, number Pi
> We know that Pi's a tasty treat.
>
Re:I already submitted this! (Score:1)
Re:Yea...but (Score:1)
so, ie = the (Pi*i)th root of -i.
Do we have an equation for netscape too?
BTW, that i^(-i) equation doesn't seem to be correct, mainly because i^i is complex and the righthand side isn't. You can get to Euler's formula from that one, but not the other way around, so they aren't equivalent
Re:Yea...but (Score:1)
My .Sig! (Score:1)
Re:Wrong ! (Score:1)
--
Re:"e" Day == Feb. 71?? (Score:1)
Crazy.
Re:Distributed Pi (Score:1)
Do your job and give a +5 Interesting to this guy
Distributed computation of PI ? It has Distributed, Beowolf, Computing ... only Natalie Portman is missing from the scene ... :)
go to http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/projects/pi hex/pihex.html [cecm.sfu.ca] NOW !
ps: check out the guy's counter... the site will be /.ed in no time
Pi the movie breaks Netscape/Linux (Score:1)
Communicator 4.7 x86 linux dies when the java part of "Pi the movie" is accessed.
Don't know about other versions/platforms
Re:Indiana nearly set Pi = 3.2 in 1897 (Score:1)
Dave Blau
It's not Pi day in .au (Score:1)
I think most to least is more logical, to match our base10 numbering system, but month, day, year is just not logical.
Will Pi day ever come for much of the world? (Score:1)
Aren't we a few years early? Or late? (Score:1)
Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits (Score:1)
An interesting question with an even more interesting answer. In a book by Petr Beckman, i think called "A History of Pi", he provides this example. The distance to the nearest star (proxima centauri) is a few lightyears (I think about 4 lightyears?) Suppose the sun and this star form a diameter of a huge sphere. Now further suppose this sphere is filled to the brim with tiny parameciums, I forget the size of these, but probably estimated as spherical at a few microns or so. Okay, you've now got a huge sphere teaming with googles of paramecia. Now let's take each paramecium and build a straight line with them, spacing each one apart by the few lightyears distance to proxima centauri. Such that you've now got an incomprehensibly large line out to intergalactic space. Now, suppose this incredibly huge line is the diameter of a circle, and the line's length is known to absolute precision. Thus, it is only the uncertainty of pi which prevents an accurate measure of the huge circle's circumference. If one knows pi to a mere 100 digits, the circumference can be calculated to a precision of a few microns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is totally amazing, and crazy how quickly orders of magnitude can jettison out of our understanding. Basically, 10^100 is such a huge number, it would be an extraordinaly rare occurrance to need even close to this much precision. Note, I haven't checked the validity of these measurements, so they may be way off. But it's still something mind-numbing to think about!
Re:Does super-pi really matter? (Score:1)
To avoid redundant redundancy, here is a to this same /. discussion but different thread (the 10,000,000 digits of pi thread), of an example of cosmological size, orders of magnitude, and how much precision of pi one may really need. [slashdot.org]
The real PI day in the U.S. (Score:2)
-Falcor
Re:A new calendar? (Score:2)
Robathome dun said (regarding someone's date of 31/4/15):
Robathome no baka :)
Seriously...different countries have different formats of splitting up dates and all. In the US, the typical format tends to be
mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy
where mm=month, dd=day, and yy=year (non-Y2K-compliant version) or yyyy=year (if you don't want to confuse hell out of everyone).
Europeans do it different, like this:
dd/mm/yy or dd/mm/yyyy
where dd=day, mm=month, etc. etc.
In much of Latin America, including Brazil (don't give me that shocked look--there are a lot of folks from Brazil on the net now, and even other countries like Mexico) they do it in yet another format:
yy/mm/dd or yyyy/mm/dd
where yy=year, etc. etc. etc.
In fact, it's SO bad what with the confusion (not to mention that a lot of places, like, oh, damn near the entire Middle East, don't even USE the Gregorian calendar--and other places, like Japan, use it but with their own special "mutations" (in Japan, they have their own calendar year count--plus they tend to count by emperor's reigns, instead of calendar year)...) that there is actually an official ISO standard for references to dates--which, surprise, surprise, actually fits the Latin American standard: [cam.ac.uk]
yyyy-mm-dd
where yyyy=year, mm=month, etc.
So he was right after all. So are the other folks. :)
Myself, I think messing with numbers like that is a bother, so I just use dates like, oh, 15 April 31 (which was the date he mentioned, by the way--by that reckoning, Yshua of Nazareth might've gotten to see it, but we're almost two millennia late :) to be crystal clear. Or measure everything in the good, old, ACCURATE calendar that the Mayans used if I want to confuse hell out of everyone. :) (Which brings up an interesting point...the Maya knew about zero, probably knew about pi to make measurements, and the Long Count is actually measured in terms of base-20 increments...anyone know what pi would be in base 20 and what Pi Day would be in the Long Count? ;)
Re:Value of pi is three according to Bible (no) (Score:2)
Re:Preferred Popular Pi (Score:2)
206 158 430 000 decimal digits of PI !!!!!! (Score:2)
Here is a billion of decimals digits of Pi !!!! http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/piDATA/PI/ [lacim.uqam.ca]
here is an explanation on they're latest record
A lot of things to explore... and memorize
00-03-14 (Score:2)
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
Re:15 Years early... (Score:2)
3-14-1592
Re:origins of Pi (Score:2)
I'm wondering if its just random typing or are you accually using an ancient version of the number
Re:Value of pi is three according to Bible (Score:2)
Pi (Score:2)
Not only is today Pi Day, it is also Albert Einstein's Birthday! Have a Relitivistic Day!
By amazing coincedence, I was actually watching Pi [pithemovie.com] last night.
"12:45, Restate my assumptions..."
A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."
Re:14-03-00 (Score:2)
3rd January 2042 works nicely enough by the system they're suggesting here but I'd have to be picky and prefer the same day in 416 or 4159. Neither of which will, I suspect, have been or be seen by anyone in this forum.
Not even Methuselah was _that_ old...
Greg
Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) (Score:2)
Re:Yea...but (Score:2)
And most things do seem to be after Euler. Some Gaussian. A whole wack of Cauchy (a touch of Dirichlet), some Euclidean, a splash of Newton, a touch of Taylor, and a jiggle of Riemann and Leibnitz.
Mix together, and *poof*, one set of irrefutable truths.
Re:Yea...but (Score:2)
Quite the contrary. i^(-i) is real. To quote Benjamin Peirce (Harvard Professor):
WRONG! 4 * (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 ...) (Score:2)
Re:pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) (Score:2)
Yes. You can prove this easily using similar triangles. <cough, cough>
pi = 3*log(640320)/sqrt(163) (Score:2)
Re:Music based on Pi (Score:2)
Music based on Pi (Score:2)
Cadaeic Cadenza (Score:2)
In other words, someone had a talent for constrained writing and way too much time on his hands, and this is the result...
--
Re:Wrong ! (Score:2)
Re:Wrong ! (Score:2)
metalab.unc.edu/gutenberg/etext93/pimil10.txt (Score:2)
For the Project Gutenberg edition of the first 10K digits of Pi, try:
http://metalab.unc.edu/gutenbe rg/etext93/pimil10.txt [unc.edu]
Re:Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits (Score:2)
I don't think it's a pissing competition amongst mathematicians so much - there are already a large number of methods worked out to calculate pi - the simplest I can remember is pi/4 = 1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 + 1/5 - ... but more amongst the people with large computers with spare time on their hands :)
Book: History of Pi (Score:2)
The Miraculous Baily-Borwein-Plouffe Pi Algorithm (Score:2)
This is the perfect occasion to spread the message of
The Miraculous Baily-Borwein-Plouffe Pi Algorithm
It is an algorithm to compute the n'th digit of Pi in any base, in
particular it is possible to compute the n'th decimal digit without
having to compute the n-1 first digits. This is a truly amazing
result. We know that pi is irrational (Euler) and that pi is
trancedental (Lindemann, 1982) and thus is highly irregular. That the
n'th digit of pi is computable is therefore very surprising. There are
only a countable number of computer algorithms and thus there are only
countable any numbers that have the property that their n'th number is
computable.
On "Fabrice Bellard's Pi Page":
http://www-stud.enst.fr/~bellard/pi/index.html#bi
one can find an article that explains the algorithm together with an
implementaion in c (two pages long). The remarkable thing is that the
algorithm uses only normal integers and doubles. That is, one need not
implement arbitrary precision arithmetic.
The algorithm is new, 1996. In another thread the corresponding
program is shown for base 16, but I much prefer the base 10 version
:-)
References:
The original article concerning base 10 is
"On the computation of the n'th decimal digit of various
transcendental numbers." by Simon Plouffe, November 30, 1996.
and can be found at
http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/plouffe/Simon/articlepi.
History:
A very readable account of the history of computations of pi is the
"The quest for pi by Bailey, Plouffe and the Borweins." this can be
found at
http://www.lacim.uqam.ca/plouffe/Simon/TheQuestfo
Here they also answer why it is fun to compute many digits of pi. In
the beginning the mathematicians wanted to know many digits of pi to
find out whether pi was irrational or not. Euler showed that pi was
irrational (the proof is not that hard). Later Lindemann in 1882
showed that pi was trancedental, that is pi is root in no polynomial
with integer coefficents. Today it is customary to compute many digits
of pi on new super computers. In 1982 sun (?) actually found some
obscure hardware bug due to a pi program.
--
Jens Axel Søgaard -- http://www.jasoegaard.dk
A Mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
- Paul Erdös
Bad Link (Score:2)
Either put the beginning quote in or leave them both out, but at least match it up for those more inclined to click on links instead of typing (and/or fixing them).
Re:What's the _real_ record? (Score:2)
I found it linked to from http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/PI/ [cecm.sfu.ca].
Re:I already submitted this! (Score:2)
pi in hex (java) (Score:3)
// Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe Algorithm for arbitrary digit calculations.
// only valid upto 2 ^ 24 for java IEEE precision.
int loop; String Schx = "";
double piFraction, s1, s2, s3, s4;
char[] chx = new char[16]; int i,nhx; double y,x;
char[] hx = {'0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','A','B',
s1 = series (1, n);s2 = series (4, n);s3 = series (5, n);
s4 = series (6, n); piFraction = 4. * s1 - 2. * s2 - s3 - s4;
piFraction = piFraction - (int) piFraction + 1.;x=piFraction;nhx=16; y = Math.abs(x);
for (i = 0; i < 16; i++){
y = 16. * (y - Math.floor (y));
chx[(int)i] = hx[(int)Math.abs(y)];
} for (loop=0;loop<16;loop++)
Schx = Schx + chx[loop];
return chx[0]; }
private double series (int m, int n)
{ int k; double ak, eps, p, s, t; eps = 0.00000000000000001;
s = 0.;
for (k = 0; k < n; k++){
ak = 8 * k + m; p = n - k;
t = expm (p, ak); s = s + t / ak;
s = s - (int) s;}
for (k = n; k <= n + 100; k++){
ak = 8 * k + m;
t = Math.pow (16., (double) (n - k)) / ak;
if (t < eps) break;
s = s + t; s = s - (int) s;
} return s; }
private double expm (double p, double ak)
{ int i; int j; double p1, pt, r;
if (tp1 == 0) {
tp1 = 1; tp[0] = 1.;
for (i = 1; i < 25; i++) {tp[i] = 2. * tp[i-1];}} if (ak == 1.) return 0.;
for (i = 0; i < 25; i++) if (tp[i] > p) break;
pt = tp[i-1];
p1 = p;
r = 1.;
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++){
if (p1 >= pt){ r = 16. * r; r = r - (int) (r / ak) * ak;
p1 = p1 - pt; } pt = 0.5 * pt;
if (pt >= 1.){ r = r * r;
r = r - (int) (r / ak) * ak; } }
return r; }
and the following are global :
static int tp1 = 0;
static double[] tp = new double[25];
Corrected link to 10,000,000 digits (Score:3)
And here is an HTTP link: http://wuarchive.wustl .edu/doc/gutenberg/etext93/pimil10.txt [wustl.edu]
As long as we're going for news this nerdy... (Score:3)
Indiana nearly set Pi = 3.2 in 1897 (Score:3)
There's a story about it [urbanlegends.com] on the urban legends site [urbanlegends.com]. Evidently, a crank mathematician named Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin M.D. "discovered" this new fact about Pi, and offered to let Indiana use it in their school textbooks without royalties if they passed the law. His state Representative bought into it and introduced the bill.
I wonder if Kansas has any plans these days concerning Pi?
origins of Pi (Score:4)
What?!?! You NEVER heard the Story of Pi? Well, sit down laddie! Grab yourself a fondue fork and I'll learn you REAL good.
It all happened many many many many many years ago. Before I was born. Way back in the days of my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad. The world was full of wonders even beyond my senile waxing. It was around this time that the Darkly Darkly wood was Open Sourced to all, and the knights of Slash ran amok spreading their Perl of Wisdom.
There was one little troll, much like yourself, only not quite as stinky. He was named Bgialtels, and was the brother of my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad. He was an angry little man, as most of us are, and wasn't happy with the Order of the Benevolent Single Druids, of which my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad was a part. He thought that they must be distroyed, and so he came up with a plan.
Bgialtels summoned demons at the annual Faeries Unified Dinner to run amok over the desert tables. At first everyone ignored them, even my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad, but soon it became a problem. Action needed to be taken. After fourteen hours of havoc, my granddaddy's poppa's great-grandfather's aunt's father's mother's granddad placed upon the table 3.1428571 cherry pies in a carefully calculated place which made the demons slip into the flaming cheese fondue. Screaming in agony, the demons lashed out, managing only to take the final "e" off the word, leaving us with Pi.
And that, my little friends, is where easter . . . I mean PI came from.
thankyoutheend
15 Years early... (Score:4)
Re:Yea...but (Score:5)
The interesting thing relating them would be:
Yep. That's just bizarre. Nonetheless pretty much irrefutable in the complex number system.
(anyone else notice how the sup tag doesn't work?)