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Posted

The First hundred digits of pi are...

 

3.14159265389793238462643382795028841971693993751058209749445923078

16406286208998628034825342117067982148086

 

 

 

A team of researchers at Tokyo University in Japan calculated the digits of pi up to 1.24 trillion places.

Posted

Here's an interesting problem for the math whizzes here: how many decimal places do you need to compute Pi to in order to be able to accurately compute the circumference of the *visible* universe to +/- 1cm? Describe and justify your answer....

 

Computadora,

Buffy

Posted

I saw Pi

 

and I thought you meant Pie!

 

:phones: :steering: :confused:

 

mmmm... 108 kinds of Pi

 

Banana Cream, Apple, Cherry, Blackberry, Peach, Raspberry, Sweet Potato,.......

 

It goes on forever! :smart: :evil:

Posted

Here's an interesting problem for the math whizzes here: how many decimal places do you need to compute Pi to in order to be able to accurately compute the circumference of the *visible* universe to +/- 1cm? Describe and justify your answer....

It's a trick question... it hasn't been proven that the universe is spherical. :confused:

Posted
It's a trick question... it hasn't been proven that the universe is spherical. :confused:
Actually its *not* a trick question: Note I was very specific about saying the "visible universe" which by definition is the sphere described from our location by the Hubble Limit. It really is mostly a *math* problem! Get out your thinking caps boys and girls! :shrug:

 

Crunch, cruch,

Buffy

Posted

A team of researchers at Tokyo University in Japan calculated the digits of pi up to 1.24 trillion places.

 

I'm very proud of that team, I bet they can now achieve great things with that 1.24 trillionth decimal place of pi...

Posted
how many decimal places do you need to compute Pi to in order to be able to accurately compute the circumference of the *visible* universe to +/- 1cm? Describe and justify your answer....

 

It's a trick question... it hasn't been proven that the universe is spherical.

 

Actually its *not* a trick question: Note I was very specific about saying the "visible universe" which by definition is the sphere described from our location by the Hubble Limit.

 

Well, in that case...

 

The more decimal places you have, the more accurate your answer. Pretty simple really. Three decimal places? Not as accurate as 3 google decimal places... :eek_big:

 

 

Cheers. :hihi:

Posted
Well, in that case...

 

The more decimal places you have, the more accurate your answer. Pretty simple really. Three decimal places? Not as accurate as 3 google decimal places... :eek_big:

 

 

Cheers. :hihi:

 

But...at what point will the addition of digits stop making a difference? At the 100,000th or the 1 millionth? It's an interesting question.

Posted

But...at what point will the addition of digits stop making a difference? At the 100,000th or the 1 millionth? It's an interesting question.

While diminishing returns will be a factor, does it not remain true that the addition of another decimal point will still increase the accuracy ad infinitum? :eek_big:

 

 

:hihi:

Posted

What are we here, sophists?! Buffy asks a straightforward (and not very difficult) question, deserving a straightforward answer.

Here's an interesting problem for the math whizzes here: how many decimal places do you need to compute Pi to in order to be able to accurately compute the circumference of the *visible* universe to +/- 1cm? Describe and justify your answer....
You need only compute Pi to the 29th decimal place to accurately compute the circumference of the *visible* universe to +/- 1cm.

 

Assume a radius r of the visible universe of about 13.7 billion (1.37*10^10) light years.

The circumference ctrue of the visible universe is then 2 * Pi * r.

An inaccurate circumference cerror is 2 * (Pi + errorPi) *r.

Given cerror = .01 m, converting and solving for errorPi, gives

errorPi = cerror /(2 * r) = about 1.5 *10^-29

 

So an estimate of Pi within 1.5 *10^-29 of its true value will result in cerror < .01 m.

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