Terse Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 LINK "What's amazing is the 'conversion experience': people find themselves almost violently angry at pi. They feel like they've been lied to their whole lives, so it's amazing how many people express their displeasure with pi in the strongest possible terms - often involving profanity." Mathematicians, eh? So passionate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScotsAlan Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I agree with the Tau side...... but certainly not passionately. More of a passing, "Oh, what a good idea". But I suspect VinnieK has some strong views... Seriously, I have a lot of respect for Mathamaticians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrighty Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I can see the logic in changing it - not only do you get the circumference of a circle better, but the periodicity of trig functions as well. Downside for me would be that the area of the circle formula would be less elegant, but worst of all is that it would mess up Euler's equation which relates the five fundamental numbers in maths (0,1,e,i,pi) in one simple equation. You could do it with Tau, but I think it's better with pi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terse Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 I can see the logic in changing it - not only do you get the circumference of a circle better, but the periodicity of trig functions as well. Downside for me would be that the area of the circle formula would be less elegant, but worst of all is that it would mess up Euler's equation which relates the five fundamental numbers in maths (0,1,e,i,pi) in one simple equation. You could do it with Tau, but I think it's better with pi. Almost exactly what I thought.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bawden Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 Who gives a fuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomTucker Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 so if im in shoprite buying bin bags how do roughly determine the diameter of my bin using Tau?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x-in-man Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 I just half noticed it on the 14th March. You can tell it's a fat yank thing - there is no 28th month in a proper calendar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinnieK Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 But I suspect VinnieK has some strong views... I'm actually with Matt Bawden on this matter, though you're kind of right: I do have strong views, just not on the actual topic of discussion. Namely: It's telling that some filthy physicist is the protagonist in all of this (as is the guy behind Pi day) - I've always thought that Pi day celebrations, and now this tau nonsense, had something of the foetid stink of Red Dwarf Marathons and Dr Who conventions about them, the same ghastly smell of despair and lonliness that hangs thick in the air of the squalid laboratories belonging to grubby atom fiddling loons. So, in summary, if you see a physicist and he doesn't look suitably ashamed, burn him or her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Goblin Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Vinnie - what on earth have physicists ever done to you!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinnieK Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 heh, apologies to any physicists: I'm just playing up my ranting maniac persona and the low key disregard physicists and mathmos sometimes have for each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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