>>I stand for PI and all its friends, irrational as they are...
>>
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http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... -on-pi-day
Irrational exuberance on Pi Day
By Alan Boyle
The most famous irrational number, pi, is being factored into a whole smorgasbord of silliness on 3/14.
On one level, Wednesday's date is just an excuse for high geekery, ranging from eating mathematically meaningful pies to marching in a circular pi procession. On a deeper level ... well, who needs an excuse to celebrate one of nature's most mysterious numbers?
In differently curved universes, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter might be something other than 3.14159 and some change. But in our universe, the digits that describe that ratio have never come to an end or shown a repeating pattern, even though pi's value has been computed to a length of 10 trillion digits. The irrationality of pi has popped up as a theme in a goodly number of books and movies through the years, including "Contact" (the book) and "Pi" (the movie). Pi's continuing hold on our imagination is definitely something worth celebrating.
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Here are a few ways to mark the day:
Tune into the Exploratorium's webcast of its Pi Day ceremonies, starting at 1 p.m. PT and climaxing at 3/14, 1:59 p.m. The Exploratorium in San Francisco is where it all began in 1988, when physicist Larry Shaw organized the first public celebration of Pi Day. There'll also be a Pi Day party at the Exploratorium's Pi-arama Space Dome in Second Life, starting at 7 p.m. PT / SLT.
Send a Pi Day e-card, courtesy of PiDay.org. The Web site also offers discussions and videos about pi, books and merchandise to buy, suggested activities and information about the why of pi.
Click on over to the Reddit website, where Ford engineers will be posting a different math equation every 3 minutes and 14 seconds. The first person to provide the correct answer to one of the 42 equations due to be posted will receive "Reddit Gold" for use in their account.
Look around for local events, such as Pi Day Princeton or the Maryland Science Center's Pi Day party. Chances are that your local science center is doing something to celebrate the day ... and if not, maybe you can convince the ticket-takers to reduce the cost of admission to $3.14, just this once.
Celebrate Albert Einstein's birthday, which also falls on March 14. Our "Century of Einstein" special report is just as insightful today as it was when we published it in 2005 to mark the centennial of the great physicist's "miracle year."
Make your plans for Tau Day, the holiday for people who think pi is passé. Tau is twice the value of pi, and some mathematicians say that makes their equations easier to juggle. If you're a tau touter, June 28 (6/28) is your special day. And if you don't follow the American style of stating dates, you might be more comfortable celebrating pi on July 22 (22/7), a date that evokes a fraction close to the irrational value of pi.
IT's PI DAY -- run in circles to celebrate
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Re: IT's PI DAY -- run in circles to celebrate
Indiana Pi
Did a state legislature once pass a law saying pi equals 3?
The Straight Dope
February 22, 1991Dear Cecil:
In Science magazine a while back an article about the latest attempts to calculate pi to the umpteen zillionth decimal place made a passing reference to a curious Oklahoma law. It said Oklahoma legislators had passed a law making pi equal to 3.0. I also remember Robert Heinlein in one of his novels mentioning that Tennessee had passed a similar law. Did either of these states ever pass such a law? Are they still on the books? What are the penalties if I proclaim that pi equals 3.14159...?
Wulf Losee, Andover, Connecticut
Dear Wulf:
Cecil had heard this story too, only the state in question was Kansas, leading him to believe the whole thing was made up by big-city sharpies having a little fun at the expense of the rustics. However, with the help of Joseph Madachy, editor of the Journal of Recreational Mathematics, I've learned the story does have a germ of truth to it.
It happened in Indiana. Although the attempt to legislate pi was ultimately unsuccessful, it did come pretty close. In 1897 Representative T.I. Record of Posen county introduced House Bill #246 in the Indiana House of Representatives. The bill, based on the work of a physician and amateur mathematician named Edward J. Goodwin (Edwin in some accounts), suggests not one but three numbers for pi, among them 3.2, as we shall see. The punishment for unbelievers I have not been able to learn, but I place no credence in the rumor that you had to spend the rest of your natural life in Indiana.
Just as people today have a hard time accepting the idea that the speed of light is the speed limit of the universe, Goodwin and Record apparently couldn't handle the fact that pi was not a rational number. "Since the rule in present use [presumably pi equals 3.14159...] fails to work ..., it should be discarded as wholly wanting and misleading in the practical applications," the bill declared. Instead, mathematically inclined Hoosiers could take their pick among the following formulae:
(1) The ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference is 5/4 to 4. In other words, pi equals 16/5 or 3.2
(2) The area of a circle equals the area of a square whose side is 1/4 the circumference of the circle. Working this out algebraically, we see that pi must be equal to 4.
(3) The ratio of the length of a 90 degree arc to the length of a segment connecting the arc's two endpoints is 8 to 7. This gives us pi equal to the square root of 2 x 16/7, or about 3.23.
There may have been other values for pi as well; the bill was so confusingly written that it's impossible to tell exactly what Goodwin was getting at. Mathematician David Singmaster says he found six different values in the bill, plus three more in Goodwin's other writings and comments, for a total of nine.
Lord knows how all this was supposedly to clarify pi or anything else, but as we shall see, they do things a little differently in Indiana. Bill #246 was initially sent to the Committee on Swamp Lands. The committee deliberated gravely on the question, decided it was not the appropriate body to consider such a measure and turned it over to the Committee on Education. The latter committee gave the bill a "pass" recommendation and sent it on to the full House, which approved it unanimously, 67 to 0.
In the state Senate, the bill was referred to the Committee on Temperance. (One begins to suspect it was silly season in the Indiana legislature at the time.) It passed first reading, but that's as far as it got. According to The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers, the bill "was held up before a second reading due to the intervention of C.A. Waldo, a professor of mathematics [at Purdue] who happened to be passing through." Waldo, describing the experience later, wrote, "A member [of the legislature] then showed the writer [i.e., Waldo] a copy of the bill just passed and asked him if he would like an introduction to the learned doctor, its author. He declined the courtesy with thanks, remarking that he was acquainted with as many crazy people as he cared to know."
The bill was postponed indefinitely and died a quiet death. According to a local newspaper, however, "Although the bill was not acted on favorably no one who spoke against it intimated that there was anything wrong with the theories it advances. All of the Senators who spoke on the bill admitted that they were ignorant of the merits of the proposition. It was simply regarded as not being a subject for legislation."
As for Representative T.I. Record--well, I haven't been able to confirm this. But some say he changed his name to Quayle.
THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON: NOT WHAT IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE
Dear Cecil:
Your response to the question about attempts to legislate pi suggests not only that your scholarship is weak but that you are a heathen. When King Solomon constructed the Temple of Jerusalem, the Second Book of Chronicles, chapter 4, verses 2 and 5, tells us:
"Then he made the Sea [a big tub] of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup..... It contained three thousand baths."
The ratio of 30 cubits for the circumference to 10 cubits for the diameter "from one brim to the other" of the "completely round" circle gives the value of pi as being exactly 3. Perhaps reliance on the Word of God motivated the Indiana legislators you trashed. You should have checked with the ultimate reference. --H.K.S., Springfield, Virginia
Cecil replies:
Some of the mail I get is unbelievable. As I attempted to point out, the Indiana legislature did not consider making pi equal to 3, but rather to 3.2, 4, or approximately 3.23, depending on which formula you used. Neither the text of the bill nor any of the commentaries regarding it refer to the Bible. Perhaps Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas or one of the other states I mentioned was the one that attempted to a legislate a pi of biblical proportions.
Interesting you should bring this up, though. In 150 A.D. a Hebrew rabbi and scholar named Nehemiah attempted to explain away the anomaly in Chronicles by saying that the diameter of the tub was 10 cubits from outer rim to outer rim, whereas the 30 cubit circumference was measured around the inner rim. In other words, the difference between the biblical notion of pi and the actual value may be accounted for by the width of the tub's walls. How's that for tap dancing, eh? Nehemiah lived a long time ago, but I feel he's my spiritual kin.
Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... i-equals-3
Did a state legislature once pass a law saying pi equals 3?
The Straight Dope
February 22, 1991Dear Cecil:
In Science magazine a while back an article about the latest attempts to calculate pi to the umpteen zillionth decimal place made a passing reference to a curious Oklahoma law. It said Oklahoma legislators had passed a law making pi equal to 3.0. I also remember Robert Heinlein in one of his novels mentioning that Tennessee had passed a similar law. Did either of these states ever pass such a law? Are they still on the books? What are the penalties if I proclaim that pi equals 3.14159...?
Wulf Losee, Andover, Connecticut
Dear Wulf:
Cecil had heard this story too, only the state in question was Kansas, leading him to believe the whole thing was made up by big-city sharpies having a little fun at the expense of the rustics. However, with the help of Joseph Madachy, editor of the Journal of Recreational Mathematics, I've learned the story does have a germ of truth to it.
It happened in Indiana. Although the attempt to legislate pi was ultimately unsuccessful, it did come pretty close. In 1897 Representative T.I. Record of Posen county introduced House Bill #246 in the Indiana House of Representatives. The bill, based on the work of a physician and amateur mathematician named Edward J. Goodwin (Edwin in some accounts), suggests not one but three numbers for pi, among them 3.2, as we shall see. The punishment for unbelievers I have not been able to learn, but I place no credence in the rumor that you had to spend the rest of your natural life in Indiana.
Just as people today have a hard time accepting the idea that the speed of light is the speed limit of the universe, Goodwin and Record apparently couldn't handle the fact that pi was not a rational number. "Since the rule in present use [presumably pi equals 3.14159...] fails to work ..., it should be discarded as wholly wanting and misleading in the practical applications," the bill declared. Instead, mathematically inclined Hoosiers could take their pick among the following formulae:
(1) The ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference is 5/4 to 4. In other words, pi equals 16/5 or 3.2
(2) The area of a circle equals the area of a square whose side is 1/4 the circumference of the circle. Working this out algebraically, we see that pi must be equal to 4.
(3) The ratio of the length of a 90 degree arc to the length of a segment connecting the arc's two endpoints is 8 to 7. This gives us pi equal to the square root of 2 x 16/7, or about 3.23.
There may have been other values for pi as well; the bill was so confusingly written that it's impossible to tell exactly what Goodwin was getting at. Mathematician David Singmaster says he found six different values in the bill, plus three more in Goodwin's other writings and comments, for a total of nine.
Lord knows how all this was supposedly to clarify pi or anything else, but as we shall see, they do things a little differently in Indiana. Bill #246 was initially sent to the Committee on Swamp Lands. The committee deliberated gravely on the question, decided it was not the appropriate body to consider such a measure and turned it over to the Committee on Education. The latter committee gave the bill a "pass" recommendation and sent it on to the full House, which approved it unanimously, 67 to 0.
In the state Senate, the bill was referred to the Committee on Temperance. (One begins to suspect it was silly season in the Indiana legislature at the time.) It passed first reading, but that's as far as it got. According to The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers, the bill "was held up before a second reading due to the intervention of C.A. Waldo, a professor of mathematics [at Purdue] who happened to be passing through." Waldo, describing the experience later, wrote, "A member [of the legislature] then showed the writer [i.e., Waldo] a copy of the bill just passed and asked him if he would like an introduction to the learned doctor, its author. He declined the courtesy with thanks, remarking that he was acquainted with as many crazy people as he cared to know."
The bill was postponed indefinitely and died a quiet death. According to a local newspaper, however, "Although the bill was not acted on favorably no one who spoke against it intimated that there was anything wrong with the theories it advances. All of the Senators who spoke on the bill admitted that they were ignorant of the merits of the proposition. It was simply regarded as not being a subject for legislation."
As for Representative T.I. Record--well, I haven't been able to confirm this. But some say he changed his name to Quayle.
THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON: NOT WHAT IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE
Dear Cecil:
Your response to the question about attempts to legislate pi suggests not only that your scholarship is weak but that you are a heathen. When King Solomon constructed the Temple of Jerusalem, the Second Book of Chronicles, chapter 4, verses 2 and 5, tells us:
"Then he made the Sea [a big tub] of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup..... It contained three thousand baths."
The ratio of 30 cubits for the circumference to 10 cubits for the diameter "from one brim to the other" of the "completely round" circle gives the value of pi as being exactly 3. Perhaps reliance on the Word of God motivated the Indiana legislators you trashed. You should have checked with the ultimate reference. --H.K.S., Springfield, Virginia
Cecil replies:
Some of the mail I get is unbelievable. As I attempted to point out, the Indiana legislature did not consider making pi equal to 3, but rather to 3.2, 4, or approximately 3.23, depending on which formula you used. Neither the text of the bill nor any of the commentaries regarding it refer to the Bible. Perhaps Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas or one of the other states I mentioned was the one that attempted to a legislate a pi of biblical proportions.
Interesting you should bring this up, though. In 150 A.D. a Hebrew rabbi and scholar named Nehemiah attempted to explain away the anomaly in Chronicles by saying that the diameter of the tub was 10 cubits from outer rim to outer rim, whereas the 30 cubit circumference was measured around the inner rim. In other words, the difference between the biblical notion of pi and the actual value may be accounted for by the width of the tub's walls. How's that for tap dancing, eh? Nehemiah lived a long time ago, but I feel he's my spiritual kin.
Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... i-equals-3
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Cainanite (imported)
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Re: IT's PI DAY -- run in circles to celebrate
I remember Pi day, because it is also my father's birthday. I just got off the phone with him. (He's doing fine.)
My Dad has had an almost eerie relationship with the numbers of Pi. Not only was he born on 3.14, but a part of our phone number growing up was a segment of numbers that exactly correlated with Pi. I won't tell you which segment, because it is still my parent's phone number.
He has membership numbers, government ID numbers, and other other coincidences that keep repeating segments of Pi.
When I was in school, and first learned about Pi, I immediately noticed how many times it showed up in my father's life. There was a membership number he used (and still uses) that he could recite by heart when he would go to buy gas. I heard it recited by him, so many times in my childhood, I knew it by heart too. It was a six digit sequence from the beginning numbers of Pi.
I asked him about it, and he honestly had never noticed it. Those numbers didn't mean anything to him. My dad is not a math guy.
I'm not much of a math guy either, but remembering my dad's birthday, our phone number, and remembering his discount membership number, got me through high school math classes, whenever Pi came up.
Those numbers might not mean much to my father, but they have for me. If nothing else, I can honestly admit that my father is a well rounded kind of guy.
I know. I suck at puns. I especially suck at MATH puns.
True story though.
My Dad has had an almost eerie relationship with the numbers of Pi. Not only was he born on 3.14, but a part of our phone number growing up was a segment of numbers that exactly correlated with Pi. I won't tell you which segment, because it is still my parent's phone number.
He has membership numbers, government ID numbers, and other other coincidences that keep repeating segments of Pi.
When I was in school, and first learned about Pi, I immediately noticed how many times it showed up in my father's life. There was a membership number he used (and still uses) that he could recite by heart when he would go to buy gas. I heard it recited by him, so many times in my childhood, I knew it by heart too. It was a six digit sequence from the beginning numbers of Pi.
I asked him about it, and he honestly had never noticed it. Those numbers didn't mean anything to him. My dad is not a math guy.
I'm not much of a math guy either, but remembering my dad's birthday, our phone number, and remembering his discount membership number, got me through high school math classes, whenever Pi came up.
Those numbers might not mean much to my father, but they have for me. If nothing else, I can honestly admit that my father is a well rounded kind of guy.
I know. I suck at puns. I especially suck at MATH puns.
True story though.
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Riverwind (imported)
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Re: IT's PI DAY -- run in circles to celebrate
I think I will be glad when this day is over and we can Pign off.
River
River
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Dave (imported)
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Re: IT's PI DAY -- run in circles to celebrate
Let me say this about PI...
Since it is an "irrational" number and never repeats a sequence of numbers
(or has never repeated a sequence of numbers in all the computer work mankind has ever done to find a repeat)...
There is a 100% certainty that any number you can recite will appear in PI.
now that's a scary but true proposition...
Infinite sequences of numbers have delightfully strange and confusing properties.
Why do I say that? Because there are more Irrational numbers than Integer numbers... It's a bigger infinity...
Since it is an "irrational" number and never repeats a sequence of numbers
(or has never repeated a sequence of numbers in all the computer work mankind has ever done to find a repeat)...
There is a 100% certainty that any number you can recite will appear in PI.
now that's a scary but true proposition...
Infinite sequences of numbers have delightfully strange and confusing properties.
Why do I say that? Because there are more Irrational numbers than Integer numbers... It's a bigger infinity...
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Uncle Flo (imported)
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Re: IT's PI DAY -- run in circles to celebrate
I have been running around in circles all day - now I have an excuse. --FLO--
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DavidB (imported)
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Re: IT's PI DAY -- run in circles to celebrate
All I know is that PI was celebrated on Sesame Street today.