two pi, or not two pi?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by hyo silver, Jun 30, 2011.

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  1. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Here's an interesting article that suggests pi is not the practical tool we all know and love, and that 2pi, or 6.28, is the more relevant figure. The new name of Tau has been suggested to replace '2pi' - can a treatise entitled "The Tau of Mathematics" be far behind? :rolleyes:
     
    #1 hyo silver, Jun 30, 2011
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  2. airportkid

    airportkid Will Fly For Food

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    Pi is like the QWERTY typewriter keyboard: too entrenched in the culture to be uprooted. But, Pi's users being about 98% unsentimental nerd, Tau will likely gain prominence. Pi will continue exist in popular culture but become non-existent in the pragmatic technical universe.

    QWERTY, on the other hand, will mystify our grandchildren, when by then its historic explanations will exist only on obsolete unreadable media. And they will gnash their teeth in frustration that it cannot be replaced because its entrenchment is too deep - it'd be like ripping out an entire vascular system and replacing it with something else without killing the patient.

    The other thing we're stuck with for a long time to come is graphic display technology based on an X-Y pixel grid instead of a hexagonal grid. Most cellular grids in nature are hexagonal - it's what's naturally efficient. The "pixellating" that so mars many electronic graphics images would be substantially reduced if the grid were hexagonal, which would provide three unpixellated axes instead of just two. But, the sheer inertia of entrenched standards, incorporated into a vast diverse "infrastructure" of applications prohibits a hexagonal grid from ever getting any farther than the Dvorak keyboard and other laboratory experiments.

    Thankfully the aluminum beer can appears so far to be a perfect fit of purpose and technology, as ageless as continents, so we can cry in our beer about the eternal permanence of Pi and QWERTY without having to cry about the beer too, and that's what life is really all about anyway, cracking open a perfect can of beer and having a slice of pi. :p
     
    #2 airportkid, Jun 30, 2011
  3. sipnfuel

    sipnfuel New Member

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    This thread is completely irrational.
     
    #3 sipnfuel, Jun 30, 2011
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  4. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    XC = 1/(2Ï€fC) CAPACITIVE REACTANCE

    XL = 2Ï€fL INDUCTIVE REACTANCE

    2Ï€ comes in handy in my RF world!
     
    #4 KK6PD, Jun 30, 2011
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  5. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    People have been kicking this around for some time. I can't get excited about it, as either is equally easy for me to use.

    Tom
     
    #5 qbee42, Jun 30, 2011
  6. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    It is a factor of 2, so easy. Pi is everywhere and isn't going anywhere.
     
    #6 2k1Toaster, Jun 30, 2011
  7. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    ω = 2πf. I've written jωC more times than I can count.

    Tom
     
    #7 qbee42, Jul 1, 2011
  8. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    I prefer bottles.
    I have yet to see a "perfect" can of beer.
     
    #8 ETC(SS), Jul 1, 2011
  9. tomlouie

    tomlouie Member

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    But then the area of a circle is 1/2 tau r squared. Awkward.
     
    #9 tomlouie, Jul 1, 2011
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  10. nerfer

    nerfer A young senior member

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    Then there's the more logical dozenal system to replace our current decimal system.

    Think about it, we have 12-packs of beverages, donuts come in dozens, 12 months in a year, 12 inches in a foot, unique names for our numbers up to 12 (then start with teens). Twelve joints in our fingers, so we can still count on our fingers. Plus it's easier to make fractions out of 12, since it's divisible by 2, 3,4 and 6, compared to just 2 and 5 for base 10.

    DSGB

    Another good idea that will never come to pass. Tau has a much better chance of acceptance, at least in certain areas of mathematics.
     
    #10 nerfer, Jul 1, 2011
  11. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Being an 'unsentimental nerd' simply means not letting your emotions rule your mind. Because that would be wrong. ;)

    I can see both pi and tau being used - they're not mutually exclusive. It's perhaps not the best name, though, since it's already used in other disciplines, such as physics, to mean something different.

    If only Euclid wasn't a flat-Earther. :rolleyes:

    Isn't hexagonal a two-dimensional approximation of spherical? Buckminster Fuller seemed to derive a whole new universe from the closest packing of spheres concept. I wonder how long the rest of humanity will need to truly absorb his brilliance.


    Surely you must be joking. Twelve is what we're trying to get rid of. Logic says ten. :)

    Why are there twelve months, when Moon orbits Earth thirteen times in a year?
     
    #11 hyo silver, Jul 1, 2011
  12. amm0bob

    amm0bob Permanently Junior...

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    two pies, or not two pi?

    I like pi...


    I like pie too...
     
    #12 amm0bob, Jul 1, 2011
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  13. Corwyn

    Corwyn Energy Curmudgeon

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    Well, there are sound reasons for keeping a square grid for displays. Where hexagonal grids would really be useful is in road grids. A hexagonal grid gets rid of most stop lights (small three way intersections don't need any control mechanisms, three road rotarys work for larger roads, and highway interchanges can be made with only one overpass, and in much smaller area. Distance travelled is substantially smaller for any two random locations (I seem to recall 12% from when I did the math many years ago).
     
    #13 Corwyn, Jul 1, 2011
  14. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    That's loony.
     
    #14 xs650, Jul 1, 2011
  15. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    Obviously astronomy should be 13 based. :eek:
     
    #15 RobH, Jul 1, 2011
  16. amm0bob

    amm0bob Permanently Junior...

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    Astrology WAS... until the christian era...
     
    #16 amm0bob, Jul 1, 2011
  17. KK6PD

    KK6PD _ . _ . / _ _ . _

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    All that you touch
    All that you see
    All that you taste
    All you feel.
    All that you love
    All that you hate
    All you distrust
    All you save.
    All that you give
    All that you deal
    All that you buy,
    beg, borrow or steal.
    All you create
    All you destroy
    All that you do
    All that you say.
    All that you eat
    And everyone you meet
    All that you slight
    And everyone you fight.
    All that is now
    All that is gone
    All that's to come
    and everything under the sun is in tune
    but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.


    "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."
     
    #17 KK6PD, Jul 1, 2011
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  18. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    I've loved Dark Side of the Moon since I first heard it. Now that was a few years ago. :p
     
    #18 hyo silver, Jul 2, 2011
  19. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    Pi are round. Cornbread are square.

    Silly kids.
     
    #19 Rae Vynn, Jul 2, 2011
  20. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    I was going to say that but didn't want to sound corny.:D
     
    #20 xs650, Jul 2, 2011
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