Einstein and Pi
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Einstein and Pi
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: Einstein and Pi
#2>it’s Pi Day, because 3/14 is the closest calendrical approximation we have to the decimal expansion of pi, π =3.1415927
This seems wrong. A quick check with a spreadsheet tells me that July 22nd should be Pi Day as 22/7=3,14285 which is 0,00126 off whereas 3,14 is 0,00159 off :)
Re: Einstein and Pi
#3"Did he just have a special love for π, perhaps based on his birthday?"
Einstein lived in Europe for 54 of his 76 years. Since no one in Europe uses the mm/dd/yy date convention, I'd be surprised if this coincidence was significant to him, or even that he was aware of it at all.
Re: Einstein and Pi
#4>it’s Pi Day, because 3/14 is the closest calendrical approximation we have to the decimal expansion of pi, π =3.1415927 This seems wrong. A quick check with a spreadsheet tells me that July 22nd should be Pi Day as 22/7=3,14285 which is 0,00126 off whereas 3,14 is 0,00159 off :)
With that interpretation 14/3 is 4.(6) or using 3/14 just 0.2(142857) and both are way off. But if we stop taking the date more or less as it but allow (arbitrary) computations on the components, we probably can get even closer than 22/7.
Re: Einstein and Pi
#5>it’s Pi Day, because 3/14 is the closest calendrical approximation we have to the decimal expansion of pi, π =3.1415927 This seems wrong. A quick check with a spreadsheet tells me that July 22nd should be Pi Day as 22/7=3,14285 which is 0,00126 off whereas 3,14 is 0,00159 off :)
With that interpretation 14/3 is 4.(6) or using 3/14 just 0.2(142857) and both are way off. But if we stop taking the date more or less as it but allow (arbitrary) computations on the components, we probably can get even closer than 22/7.
My comment was mostly in jest but I was indeed comparing two different interpretations 3/14 to mean 3.14 and 22/7 to mean the fraction. If anything the fraction interpretation seems more natural to me because of the forward slash.
I'm curious how we could get closer than 22/7. With two numbers and a single operation (the slash) what would you do to get closer? 22/7 seems hard to beat.
Re: Einstein and Pi
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
With that interpretation 14/3 is 4.(6) or using 3/14 just 0.2(142857) and both are way off. But if we stop taking the date more or less as it but allow (arbitrary) computations on the components, we probably can get even closer than 22/7.
My comment was mostly in jest but I was indeed comparing two different interpretations 3/14 to mean 3.14 and 22/7 to mean the fraction. If anything the fraction interpretation seems more natural to me because of the forward slash. I'm curious how we could get closer than 22/7. With two numbers and a single operation (the slash) what would you do to get closer? 22/7 seems hard to beat.
Re: Einstein and Pi
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
With that interpretation 14/3 is 4.(6) or using 3/14 just 0.2(142857) and both are way off. But if we stop taking the date more or less as it but allow (arbitrary) computations on the components, we probably can get even closer than 22/7.
My comment was mostly in jest but I was indeed comparing two different interpretations 3/14 to mean 3.14 and 22/7 to mean the fraction. If anything the fraction interpretation seems more natural to me because of the forward slash. I'm curious how we could get closer than 22/7. With two numbers and a single operation (the slash) what would you do to get closer? 22/7 seems hard to beat.
A phenomenally accurate fraction for pi is 355/113. It's hard to see how to get that to be interpreted as a date, though.
Re: Einstein and Pi
#8This is a great article.
It is incredibly hard to take a difficult mathmatical concept and break it down into pieces that normal people can understand.
This author did a fantastic job of that.
Re: Einstein and Pi
#9I had somehow never made the connection that the gravitational inverse square law has the same physical explanation as visible light fall-off [1] -- energy being distributed over a larger area with increasing distance from a point source (with which I'm intimately familiar from computer graphics and vision).
Does anyone with a physics background know: is there any evidence of absorption, reflection, or occlusion of gravitational energy in the same way that we experience with light (and sound)?
[1] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/forces/isq.html
Re: Einstein and Pi
#10"Did he just have a special love for π, perhaps based on his birthday?" Einstein lived in Europe for 54 of his 76 years. Since no one in Europe uses the mm/dd/yy date convention, I'd be surprised if this coincidence was significant to him, or even that he was aware of it at all.
It's a joke. The author of the post makes it clear that it's a coincidence.