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There's just something endlessly fascinating about pi
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Location: Blogs Sly Comments |
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| Posted by: Emory Schley |
11/19/2007 6:35 PM |
Lots of numbers are endlessly fascinating, but none more so than π. In speech, it’s pronounced “pie,” but in its written form, it’s pronounced more like “pee.” It is, of course, our old friend from geometry and algebra days, the one that allows us to solve math problems that involve circles.
Modern computers have figured out the value of π to a trillion places. In 2002, the value of pi was computed to 1,241,100,000,000 places, or if you’re not very facile with numbers, that’s 1 trillion, 241 billion, 100 million! A trillion, for those a little unsure with numbers of this size, is a million millions, or a 1 followed by 12 zeroes or 10^12. However you look at it, it’s a most awesome number.
The value of Pi, to 30 decimal places is 3.141592653589793238462643383279, which is precise enough to figure out almost any problem you’ll ever come up against, like circles big enough to encompass the entire known universe. Of what use would the value of pi carried out to millions or billions of places be? At that value, it’s merely an academic curiosity, but it does hold relevance for being a benchmark for computer operation, and is frequently used to gauge the speed of computers.
The Bible set a value of 3 for pi, but later authorities knew that number fell somewhat short, so it was modified, refined, recomputed, reinvented, and now is known to very definite values. I saw a bit about a fellow on TV one time, who had memorized Pi to something like 1,000 decimal places or something like that. I suppose it’s a good workout for your memory cells but there’s not much opportunity to drop a number of that size into a casual conversation. Besides, even if you did, no one listening would know if you were reciting it correctly or not.
However, I guess that fellow is just another of the ones who are endlessly fascinated by this most remarkable number, just like me! |
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