Pi, an AMAZING description!!

Originally posted by ZeussusZ
Here is a website that you can search for a number sequence in the first 200000000 digits of pi.
See if your birth date is in there.

www.angio.net...

How many others put in the last euromillions numbers as their string?

Originally posted by Krusty the Klown
reply to post by EdSurly

 

You are assuming I'm lazy and an iphone owner. Well done. In fact I'm neither but thanks for pre-judging me.

You still did not answer the question the student asked. How often does a layman need to calculate the area of a circle?

Is there anything else you can use pi for?

And I am not being a smart ass like you assume. If you don't know the answer don't bother replying, I'm asking for someone with some ACTUAL knowledge to reply.

The "layman" doesn't use it, there are many things the layman doesn't use. The layman doesn't use the theory of relativity, the layman doesn't even realize they use Newton's laws of motion, the layman doesn't realize they use simple machines, many laymen don't realize that compound interest exists, that's why they're laymen. All those things are still out there, all those things are still useful, all those things are still used by each and every person who is on the forfront of research and development and the creation of new technology.

Perhaps the answer to the question is "It can mean the difference in being a layman and being something much, much more"

How many children dream of or have the goal of being "just a layman" or an ordinary, average person? No, they dream of bigger and better things. We dream of bigger and better things for our children. Knowledge is the great equalizer. It represents the quest for knowledge and what can be obtained.

Calculating circumference, area etc using pi will :
Let you know how much icing to make to cover that cake.
Let you work out what size tyre will fit a rim.
how much concrete to mix to line a round tub.
And lots more stuff in your day to day existence. Just the same as knowing some trig means you always buy the right amount of wood for a roof joist or metal for a bike frame.

Originally posted by winofiend
I hate maths.

So if it's infinite and contains every other number sequence within it.

I'm left asking, if this is true, then does it only appear to end when we appear to run out of things to count?

Where in PI is 21/12/12 for instance. or 21122012. Or the phone number to nasa? Near the end? It has no end. Middle? Start? Is the start of PI actually the start then, or just where..

I hate maths...

(not denying it, lol, just in case someone asks, but it does my head in)

edit on 4-1-2013 by winofiend because: (no reason given)

21122012 occurs at position 39,594,336 from left to right.

I see ZeussusZ has beaten me to linking the quite fascinating site where you can search the first 200 million numbers for a string.

Star to ZeussusZ :-)

Originally posted by Krusty the Klown
How often does a layman need to calculate the area of a circle?

Is there anything else you can use pi for?

Probably not often, but the class is not just for one person, its mathematics, and is supposed to prepare all the students for whatever they go on to do, some will end up doing maths at uni, and without an understanding of basic mathematics will struggle...

And you also learn how to study at school, so even if there is no other use for any particular concept, you will still indirectly benefit from learning it.

reply to post by Krusty the Klown


I didn't mean for that to be directed at you Krusty. I appoligize for the way the reply was written. It certainly looked like I was targeting you personally, in my minds eye I was speaking to a class of high school students. After re-reading the reply it did look awful and I am sorry. The only part ment for you was figuring the area of a circle.

reply to post by kthxbai


Fantastic reply. I wish I was so elequent.

Originally posted by salainen

Originally posted by kthxbai
He did answer the question. He said "now what you do with that information, what it's good for, that is up to you"

You have the world at your fingertips, the rest is up to you

But that was the question. He basically said that you need to figure out the answer to your question. She asks how is this going to be of any use in the future, he answers that its up to you what you do with it. I guess in a round about way its an answer, just not the answer she was looking for. There is a more precise and useful way to answer...

I always liked Robert Heinlein's answer:

"Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house."

It's what separates us from the fish.