[matrixscarface]

here is a question that is been bothering me. how can pi never end? why doesn't it stop?
And also could there be a possible pattern to pi?

I always knew as a child that there would be such problems

[niviene]

matrixscarface said:

here is a question that is been bothering me. how can pi never end? why doesn't it stop?
And also could there be a possible pattern to pi?

I always knew as a child that there would be such problems

Why do you think that pi is a problem? It is just a ratio... other numbers also do not "end", it just depends on how far out you want to take the decimal point. Everything seems to be that way... can you ever stop a stop watch at exactly 15 seconds? If you had the right time measuring tool, you'd see that what you stopped it on was a fraction of time that had an infinite number of decimals. I almost wonder if it's ever possible to have an exact 15... it must be, if you can get to 16, but how many decimal places do you go out to before you change over (ignoring human capabilities of being able to stop the clock at infinitely small increments of time...) 1/3 is another example, just like pi. If you turn it into a decimal, it never "ends".

My thoughts, anyhow.

[Qfwfq]

niviene said:

1/3 is another example, just like pi. If you turn it into a decimal, it never "ends".

The difference is that 1/3 is rational. In base 3 you would write it 0.1

The square root of two is not rational. Try to find a pair of integers m and n such that the square of m/n is exactly 2.

[C1ay]

matrixscarface said:

here is a question that is been bothering me. how can pi never end? why doesn't it stop?
And also could there be a possible pattern to pi?

I always knew as a child that there would be such problems

Numbers can be divided into 2 groups, rational and irrational.
Rational numbers can be expressed as a fraction. If you evaluate the fraction, or perform the division it implies, you end up with a decimal number that terminates or repeats. 1/2 evaluates to 0.5 and 1/3 evaluates to 0.3333...... forever for instance.

Irrational numbers cannot be expressed as a fraction that either terminates or becomes periodic, repeats, if you perform the division. There are no 2 integers that can represent pi as a ratio. Some are close like 22/7, 333/106, 355/113, 104348/33215 and 837393900/266550757 but none are exact. Other irrational numbers include the square roots of all of the prime numbers and e, 2.7182818284590452353602874713527......., as well.

[niviene]

Qfwfq said:

The difference is that 1/3 is rational. In base 3 you would write it 0.1

The square root of two is not rational. Try to find a pair of integers m and n such that the square of m/n is exactly 2.

Ahhh.. so maybe the real question he's asking is if it's possible that eventually it repeats itself, which would change it from irrational to rational?

[matrixscarface]

niviene said:

Ahhh.. so maybe the real question he's asking is if it's possible that eventually it repeats itself, which would change it from irrational to rational?

there yea go

[Qfwfq]

niviene said:

Ahhh.. so maybe the real question he's asking is if it's possible that eventually it repeats itself, which would change it from irrational to rational?

The way to show that a number is rational is to find a method for calculating integer numerator and denominator.