March the 14th is pi day. If you don't know why, think of the
way Americans write dates. It is certainly one of the sillier special
days. If you wish to know more about it , see the following webpage
the following webpage
To celebrate it here are some pi jokes:
With the method of Buffon the value of Pi can be calculated by throwing
needles (length l) on a parquet floor with where the planks have a width
of b. The probability that a needle crosses two planks, with touching the
border counting as a half needle, is 2l/(b pi)
The idea is that you use many needles of a reasonable measurement. With a
1000 needles you will might get it to the first decimal correct (3.1).
N. Gridgeman used 2 needles with a length of 78.5398 cm and planks with a
width of 1 m. With one of the needles touching the border of a plank and
the other not he got pi = (2 * 0.785398) / ( 1 * 1/2) = 3.141592. Not bad
at all for two needles.
--
Another method method to calculate pi, discovered by Ernestor Cesàro, is by
by using the fact that the probability that two random integers have no
common divisors is 6/pi^2.
Jiang Chuan divided the first 1250000 decimals of pi in parts of six
ciphers and and got pi=3.146634, which is correct to 2 places.
Based on Jean-Paul Delahaye, Het fascinerende getal pi,2004 (translation
of: Le fascinant nombre pi. 1997)
halloween math
Q: Wadaya get when you take the circumference of your jack-o-lantern and
divide it by its diameter?
A: Pumpkin Pi
A shoeseller meets a mathematician and complains that he does not know what
size shoes to buy. "No problem," says the mathematician, "there is a simple
equation for that," and he shows him the Gaussian normal distribution. The
shoeseller stares some time at het equation and asks, "What is that
symbol?" "That is the Greek letter pi." "What is pi?" "That is the ratio
between the circumference and the diameter of a circle." Upon this the
shoeseller cries out: "What does a circle have to do with shoes?!"
'Tis a favorite project of mine
A new value of pi to assign.
I would fix it at 3
For it's simpler, you see,
Than 3 point 1 4 1 5 9.
("The Lure of the Limerick" by W.S. Baring-Gould, p.5. Attributed to
Harvey L. Carter).
If inside a circle a line
Hits the center and goes spine to spine
And the line's length is "d"
the circumference will be
d times 3.14159
If inside a circle a line
Hits the center and goes spine to spine
And the line's length is "d"
the circumference will be
d times 3.14159
Pi vs e
Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed?
I liked the PI-ous one best.
Statement: pi * r^2
Reaction: Pie are not square. Pie are round. Cornbread are square.
Mathematician's Bakery: House of Pi
As easy as 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841
The most boring book in the world is probably: J. Guilloud and M Bouyer,
1000 000 pi, commisariat à l'Énergie Atomique, 1974.
The 415 pages contain the first million decimals of pi.
In case it interests you the last 5 decimals in the book are : 58151
If you are a real pi freak (if not how is possible that you got this far? :-)), I also have some pi mnemonics.
The exploratorium site I mentioned on top has more links. I especially recommend Mike Keith's page, who makes remarkable pi mnemonics.
If you wish to know more about pi, but you are not a mathematician, I can recommend Jean-Paul Delahaye's book on pi, le fascinant nombre pi. There are also Dutch and German translations. Maybe also others, I don't know.
Joachim.